Prologue On August 5th, 2014, an earthquake with a magnitude that exceeded the Richter scale caused a tsunami to demolish the east coast of the United States. Buildings were completely destroyed and every city within a hundred miles of the coast were completely submerged. This disaster was just the beginning of something much bigger. Just ten minutes after the wave crashed into the Eastern Shore, another earthquake of the same magnitude hit just outside the coast of California causing another tsunami in the West. Scientists were baffled. Never had something this huge happened in such a small interval of time. The damage was heart wrenching. Thousands were lost on the first day alone, not to mention the ones lost in the aftershocks that continued in the weeks after. Hawaii was completely decimated. It was days before the government could even get the Coast Guard there and almost everything was underwater. Only a handful of people were able to be rescued. It wasn't long until people started to get sick. At first it started out as "just the flu", but it didn't take long until doctors realized it was more. No matter how many vaccines were produced, or how many antibiotics the scientists tried obsessively to develop, nothing worked. Nothing. The United States as a whole was destroyed. People were fleeing to other countries in the Eastern Hemisphere to get as far away from the illness as possible. These countries welcomed the first immigrants with open arms, gladly accepting the refugees. But it wasn't long until some people carried the virus to the other countries. As soon as the first signs of the virus were discovered countries shut down their borders. Most countries even put a ban on having goods imported, but it didn't work. Eventually towns were completely forgotten, and city populations were becoming frighteningly low. There were stories about some people who thought the cold could freeze it, therefore killing it. People began to move closer to the poles, but it seemed as if it couldn't be stopped. A group of scientists in Nevada were trying desperately to stop it. They were working on a cure for the virus for months. They were testing it on animals because they didn't know how safe it was. There were stories about how most of the animals developed mutations that were even transferred to their offspring. Ridiculous tales were being told about dogs being born with six legs instead of four, and how this may have seemed like a bad mutation, it actually made the dogs faster and stronger. With the new speed also came new aggression. After two of the researchers were killed by the dogs, they had to be put down. Then the idea that instead of finding a cure for the virus was formed. Scientists thought that they could try to find out how the immune remained unaffected. After months of testing they began to think that it was actually genetics. No one is exactly sure who came up with this idiotic idea, but the thought of a new scientific advancement in this horrible time thrilled what was left of the population. For weeks people spent their days inside waiting for news of a cure. This is where the world truly took its downfall. Scientists were at a war with each other. Many of them thought that trying to find a way to change people’s genetics would save them. While others thought it'd be best not to mess with genetics, especially when the world was dealing with a virus as strong as this one. Eventually the latter was defeated, and scientists began running tests on the genes of the immune. Finally they thought that they had found a gene that made those tested immune. Doctors immediately began to do surgeries or IGD's (immune gene displacements), in hope that they would help free the world of this illness. If only they would have known just how wrong they were. Whatever the scientists did to those people's genes changed them. At first the government did its best to hide them. It was like nothing was wrong. For awhile people began to help rebuild Earth to its prior state. Only things didn't go back to normal like everyone had hoped. The people who had had the surgery to become immune from the virus had changed. The people became violent, some even murderous. For weeks the government tried to hide the news of these people acting out. Three months after the first of the surgeries had been administered was when the world began to worry. A group of fifty-seven men, women, and children as young as three months were found dead in an 'abandoned' warehouse just outside of Detroit. Police reports said that the scene was more than gruesome. Somehow pictures of this tragedy were posted online. It was shortly after that when the riots began. It started in Detroit when students at a high school began to skip school, and hundreds of students a day were absent. Finally the school board put their foot down and students began to come back. The first day that the school had a decent attendance rate, was also the day sixteen year old Clay Lion was found murdered in the restroom. The school board warned students that if they didn't show up to school they would be suspended. The next morning more than 300 students sat out on the school lawn, protesting. Classes were canceled. Of the classes that were still being held only a few students were present. But Detroit wasn't the only city being affected. Schools in cities such as New York, San Francisco, and Dallas were having similar problems. After weeks of investigating it became known that students had begun to feel uncomfortable around some of their classmates and that was the reason they weren't attending classes. It turned out that all of the students who were making them uncomfortable had IGD's performed on them. It didn't take long for this chaos to spread all across the world. People didn't realize how they were setting themselves up for destruction. The patients that had IGD's were insane; it was as if something inside of them had snapped. They began to want power, and their anger continued to grow. Some how a group of these people met, and in their minds it was a good idea to stick together. As their aggression grew, they began to formulate crazy ideas. It seemed as if these people believed it was their duty to get rid of all of the aggression going on. Of course, the only way they saw fit to do this was with more aggression. A chemist named Kyle Redman and a scientist named Max Harrier came up with a clear, non-scented toxin to be put into smoke grenades. This toxin was deadly. At least that's what Kyle and Max believed. Kyle had refused to use it in any type of testing, even on animals. Which some of the more ill-minded people found slightly intriguing, considering later he used several of the toxic grenades on a group of 800 college students who were rioting at West Virginia University in mid September of 2015. The effect that the toxin had on the students was unimaginable. At first it seemed as if the chemical had worked, everyone in the crowd almost instantly dropped to the ground. Being the sick-minded men that they were Kyle, Max and all of their followers decided to stick around for a few extra minutes. It didn't take long for the first one to get up, and soon about half of the eight hundred students, plus some of the police who were trying to keep them under control were up and staring at the men and women that were standing before them in gas masks. Stories are passed on about how Max, Kyle, and all of his followers were ripped into pieces, skinned alive, or any other unimaginable way of dying. No one truly knew the truth, only that the scene was gruesome. There had been plenty of stories about mass murders, and suicides all across the United States similar to the one in Detroit, but this was different. The officers and paramedics that were dispatched to this scene seemed traumatized by what they saw. After several days some of the officers were interviewed for CNN news. Their descriptions of what they saw were terrible, but not comparable to the fear that was present in their eyes. They spoke of how there were bodies that were ripped apart, and some seemed to look like they had been chewed on, but by the time the paramedics arrived there was no trace of what could've happened to them. Of the eight hundred students suspected to be at the riot, only three hundred eighty six bodies found, including Max and Kyle. Parents of both the dead and the missing students were interviewed and eventually it all became clear. The students that were missing were only the ones who were able to have the IGD. This was the first large step into the end of the normal world. Soon enough more mass-murder scenes were found. It became clear that Max and Kyle had created monsters, but only no one knew exactly what to expect from them. By the time that the military decided to get involved it was too late. Max and Kyle had already sent out large shipments of the toxin to group members in other countries. The monsters were strong and fast. At first it was unclear as to what they wanted, but quickly the world was able to figure out that it was more than the urge to kill that lead these creatures. For lack of a better term most called them vampires, but obviously they didn't fit the usual description. Some called them zombies and some just 'the damned'. But no matter the name these creatures were deadly, and it would take a lot of will power to survive in this new era.
October 3, 2016. "RUN!" Sage yelled and grabbed hold of Sage's wrist, dragging her up the steps and into the house, and slamming the front door behind them. He pushed her towards the stairs and turned to secure the locks on the door. She was only three steps up when the first one slam into the door and the sound only made her run faster up the wooden steps slipping twice before finally reaching the top. By the time she turned to make sure Sage was behind her, he was already grabbing hold of her wrist and pulling her, again, towards the safe room. Just as they reached the door they heard the door downstairs snap and instantly knew what was waiting for them down there. Roxy sprinted as fast as she could towards the door while clinging onto Sage the whole time. As they closed the door they could see the deformed head of the first one at the top of the stairs. "Get in!" Sage screamed as the first one grabbed towards Roxy's foot, tearing off a piece of her jeans before she managed to dive into the safe room. They both lay breathless on the floor, their bodies refusing to move. After a few minutes, Sage somehow found the energy to sit up. "How the-" Roxy started but was interrupted by Sage. "Don't you dare yell at me right now, Roxy Coleman?" By the tone of his voice she knew better then to continue. Instead she stood and walked to the old couch that was on the other side of the room. As she sat, a layer of dust flew into the air. It had been a long time since they had been to this safe room, or even in this house. Most days they didn't venture far enough away from their home to not be able to make it back in time if need be, but this time Sage seemed to forget about time, and forgetting about time is how you end up dead, or worse. Of course, he wouldn't listen when Roxy told him it was time to head back. Typical for him. The world ends and he still doesn't listen to any advice from her. After a few more minutes of silence something inside of Roxy snapped. She stood up and went over to Sage, who was still sitting against the wall with his head down. Out of pure rage, she kicked him in the thigh. "What the -" He started but the last word was drowned out by Roxy's shouts. "I told you! I. Told. You. Sage! Come on, I told you we needed to get home and you didn't listen! Now those devils are outside, probably ripping our car to shreds. Our car! The only thing we had left to get around in this godforsaken town and we have to leave it by the porch all because you didn't listen to me!" He tried to talk but she continued. "You could've gotten us infected! Do you realize how close that was! One had hold of my pant leg, and it's amazing it didn't bite me. I left my home and my entire family because I thought us working together would be unstoppable. Somewhere in Virginia my parents and Jess are just like those monsters, those bloodthirsty, heartless, zombies!" By this point the tears were starting to form in her eyes, but to make her point she took a swing at Sage and hit him as hard as she could in the arm. "Roxy... I-" "Just stop okay? Stop. I don't care right now." And with that she walked to the couch and laid down, making sure her back was towards him. She cried for what seemed like an eternity, but just as she started to drift off into sleep Sage joined her and wrapped his arms around her. Instead of pushing him away she turned inched closer to him and drifted off into a restless sleep. Before.
Sage and Roxy had lived in small suburban homes just outside of Richmond, Virginia. Roxy was sixteen the day that Kyle and Max created the terrible mutations out of the three hundred and some people. Her birthday was only in a week, and she was spending almost all of her time planning a party for her and all of her friends. She had a sister named Jessica, but everyone called her Jess, or Jessie. Her mother was a doctor, and she was the reason that Roxy had not had the IGD. She didn't trust the surgery. She seemed to think that the surgery was a hoax. No one had ever tried to change genes like this, and to her it wasn't safe. Even though without it, they could be sickened with the virus that had killed so many. Her father, a high school history teacher, disagreed. He believed that without the IGD they would be infected with the virus and die. He had talked Jessie into getting the surgery also, but Roxy agreed with her mother. Sage was eighteen and lived just across the road from Roxy. Sage and Roxy had been best friends since they could remember. Sage was a year older, but somehow they were still inseparable. He was an only child and lived with both his mother and father. His mother was a divorce lawyer for a law-firm just outside of Richmond. Sage's father was also a doctor, but unlike Roxy's mother he thought the idea for the IGD was brilliant. Both of Sage's parents had the IGD performed on them, and Sage was scheduled for one in less than a week, when Sage came running across the street and crashed into the Coleman's house, with sweat dripping from his face and his white t-shirt splattered with little red drops. He was crying, which was a sight that Roxy had never seen in the years that they had been friends. He collapsed on the floor just inside of the Coleman's kitchen, with his chest rising and falling rapidly from breathing hard, and his entire body trembling. For a few minutes Roxy and her parents tried to get him to explain what was wrong, but between the sobbing and the trembling none of them could understand what he was trying to say. Roxy gave up on trying to calm him down and did the best she could to look for a place on Sage that the blood could have come from. When she didn't find anything, she immediately called the police, and soon there were lights flashing out on the street. His father, in a fit of anger, had killed his mother and then turned the gun on himself. Sage had never let it be known how aggressive both of his parents had become, and so it came as a surprise to all of the Coleman family. Police officers questioned Sage, and he tried his best to answer them. Eventually after a few days of investigations, and a funeral, things calmed down quite a bit. Since Sage was 18 he was able to live on his own, but he never did. He seemed to spend most of his time with Roxy. In fact it seem as if the only time he left the Coleman home was late at night and that was only because Roxy's parents weren't comfortable with having him stay. Every night Sage would stay with one of his other friends, but he always seemed to return to the Coleman's by 8 A.M. He refused to stay at his old home, and so he sold it to a new married couple. Sage was a free spirit. Growing up he didn't take anything serious. He wasn't good at saving his money, and he had no credit experience. He soon realized that selling his old home was not a good idea, there was absolutely no way he could find a decent place to live, even with all of the money he had made from his prior home he would never be able to afford the bills, and after the loss of his parents he seemed to not care about anything except for Roxy. After much begging from both Roxy and Jessie, who always seemed fascinated with the older boy, the Coleman’s offered for Sage to move in with them until he got his feet planted. If only he had had enough time. October 7, 2016. They were chasing her, but she had a head start, and a pretty large one. The only problem was how inhumanly fast they were. She has less than thirty seconds, but there's nothing she can do except run. She wouldn't go down without a fight, even though it'll be useless to try to overpower them. Just as her legs began to give out the first one jump onto her back. The unexpected weight made her fall face first onto the hard pavement. She could see the others approaching. All of them were hairless, not just the men like her and Sage had originally thought, but all of them. Their eyes were as black as pitch, and surrounded by a deep crimson red. Their skin was grey, but it was easy to see all of their veins. Most wore ripped clothes that were stained with red and Roxy tried to not think about whose blood it was. One in particular had caught her attention. It was a child, but Roxy couldn't tell the difference until it walked closer to her. The young girl knelt down to Roxy's level. Her face was almost unrecognizable; a long thick scar ran from the left side of her forehead and continued underneath the collar of her shirt. The right side of her face was covered with smaller scars. Still somehow Roxy knew that it was her sister, and just as she realized this she was bit in the arm. The last thing she saw before she woke up was her sister’s smile. She woke up screaming and scared Sage so much he fell off of the couch. Tears were streaming out of her eyes, and her body was drenched in sweat. When she realized that it was a dream she started crying even harder. "I'm scared." As the words left her mouth she realized that she was more than scared, she was absolutely terrified. Sage didn't say anything simply because there was nothing he could say. Instead he pulled himself back on to the couch and embraced her. Immediately she buried her face into his shoulder. His black hair and grown out over the past few months and it ticked her cheek as she held onto him. He didn't say anything to her; instead he ran his fingers through the length of her long brown hair until she fell asleep. Sage didn't sleep well that night. He kept thinking about how sad Roxy's sea-green eyes had looked before she fell asleep. He blamed himself for the death of Roxy's mother. If they would have came home from school when Roxy wanted to they probably could have saved her. If her mother was with them now their lives would be simpler. Sure they'd have one more person to feed, but at least she could cook. Sage knew how it felt to lose his family, but he still didn't know how to comfort Roxy. She had done so well comforting him after his parents deaths. All she had to do was look into his deep blue eyes and he felt at ease, and he wished he could have the same effect on her. Sage left before Roxy woke up. She hated him going out alone, but she was glad he didn't wake her. After the emotional day, she was grateful for a few extra hours of sleep, but she knew she had things to do. Inventory was the first priority. Without a car they'd be stuck in for a while. The walk back to their home in Edmonds was too far to make in a single day, and definitely too dangerous. Though the chances of running into another human were unlikely, it still did happen, and they could be more dangerous than the monsters. As Roxy was halfway through the supplies she heard a noise at the door and immediately picked up a pistol that had been left on the counter. She relaxed when she saw Sage's familiar blue eyes. "Sorry, tough habit to break." She apologized and went to put the pistol back on the counter but until she noticed the red-purple liquid that covered his shirt. "Oh my god." She exclaimed, "What happened?" "It's not mine. I'm not hurt." He said just as she reached him. "Then whose is it?" "They got in last night remember; I had to take care of the dead ones." Roxy shuddered as the picture of the monsters bodies thrown across the floor raced into her thoughts. They were probably very angry about their escape last night, which meant that outside the safe room there was probably a bloody fight between them. Of course the stronger ones probably ripped the weaker into shreds. She shuddered again as pictured Sage being ripped in half by one of them, and quickly pushed the thought from her mind. "How's the car?" As Roxy spoke she turned back towards the pile of canned goods she was sorting through. "Destroyed. Completely. We will have to find another one. " "Did you lock the door at the home?" "Yea everything should be secure, at least until we get back." "Which will be when, Sage?" "I should be able to find a car by Friday." "And what if you don't?" "I will." Roxy knew better than to argue with him. He would find them a car and get them out of this mess, just like he always did. "Okay, well it's Tuesday right? We will have enough food here to last us until at least Sunday." "Perfect. I'm going to get cleaned up. Take a nap you look exhausted" And with that he walked towards the bathroom. "I'm not even tired." She replied, but even as she said it she went back to sit on the couch. Before Sage finished washing up she was sleeping again. Before. Neither of the two teenagers had much interest in going to school anymore. On the days that they did go there was hardly anyone there anyways. Most of the staff and students had just seemed to give up, especially after the terrible incident at West Virginia. The news of the 800 dead or missing students at WVU had frightened everyone in the area. Some parents just wouldn't allow their children to go to school and a good portion of the student body were infected or even killed by the virus. The few times that they had gone there had never been a class with more than five students. On one morning Roxy and Sage were woken up by Mrs. Coleman and told to get out of the house. Jessie had got sick and they couldn't tell if it was a virus or just the flu, but they didn't want to chance it and have Roxy and Sage get sick too. It was Sage's idea to go to school that day, but he didn't know that by doing so he was saving both his and Roxy's lives. That day at school was unusually boring. By 11:30 Roxy was begging Sage to go home, and by 1 he finally gave in. The remaining staff members didn't care if they left. Actually most of them envied the fact that they could leave if they wished. As they walked home Sage could easily see how distressed Roxy was about Jessie, so he tried to quicken their pace. As soon as Sage opened the door to the Coleman home he knew something was wrong. The whole house smelled terrible. Sage and Roxy walked into the house and yelled as best they could to try to find Mr. and Mrs. Coleman along with Jessie, but to no avail. It was Sage who found the note on the table from Mrs. Coleman. It described how something had gone terribly wrong, and how sorry she was that she didn't have time to warn them in person. With the note was a set of directions to Roxy's Uncle Jason's house in Georgia. Behind that was a note addressed directly to Sage telling him to get Roxy as far away as possible, along with all of the Coleman credit cards. Sage was confused at first, but as he looked up from the kitchen counter top he saw something that stained his thoughts forever. Mr. Coleman was standing against the glass door that led into the kitchen. His clothing drenched in blood, and a crazed look in his eyes that made Sage shiver, so he ran as fast as he could upstairs. Luckily, most of his clothes were packed into his suitcase still, but it took some time to get enough of Roxy's clothes stuffed into an old suitcase. Sage did almost all of her packing, as she sat on her bed, staring at the crumpled note that her mother had left. The noted addressed to Sage was tucked carefully away in his pocket. As they left the house for the very last time Sage looked back towards the kitchen door. In his mind he had hoped that nothing would be there. He regretted looking as soon as he saw not only Mr. Coleman, but Jessie too. Both of them were staring blankly towards him while trying to push through the glass door. Another shiver ran down his spine as he guided Roxy towards the car. Sage drove for hours while Roxy screamed, cried, and yelled for him to turn back and go home. After she tried punching him and screaming finally she realized her efforts were useless. The drive to Jason's home was just over two hours. Once the duo reached Jason's house she realized just how serious this new situation was. Jason's house was abandoned, and the two tried their hardest to keep their minds from wandering to where, or in Sage's case, what he was. After a few hours of searching and waiting for Jason to show up, Sage finally told Roxy what he'd seen at her home. He didn't go into gruesome detail, and he didn't need to. After he had finished, Roxy looked at him in awe, and he was afraid that she wouldn't believe him. He took the other note from his pocket and set it in front of her. After reading it, Roxy broke down again. Sage held her until they both fell asleep. In the morning Sage found her in the living room with a pile of weapons and ammo on the floor in front of her, and the news playing clips of people who looked similar to Mr. Coleman and Jessie terrorizing towns. "Is that what you saw Sage?" She asked her voice flat and cold. Reluctantly he answered "Yea, that's pretty much it?" She didn't reply, instead she picked up a shot gun off of the floor in front of her and handed it to him. Her face showed no emotion. October 7, 2016. "Roxy!" Jess yelled as she ran from the car directly at her. "I missed you so much! I'm never leaving again." Her arms wrapped around Roxy neck as she picked her up and spun her around. "Good, because I missed you too. You're too small to go to a two week summer camp anyways! How was the camp?" She set her back on the ground and took a seat in the grass. "It was great! All we did was play soccer! All day long, and there was a guys camp there with a bunch of kids your age and some of them got to come over and help us out. It was great. I learned a lot!" She sat too and began picking the grass out of the ground. "That's great Jess, I'm sure you're going to be great this upcoming season." "Promise you'll go to all of my games!" Her eyes lit up as she waited for the response. "Of course I'll go to every one!" And that was it. No monster chasing her and no death. Dreams like that were the worst for Roxy. They reminded her of her old life, before the monsters, before the killing. Looking back Roxy realized that she never got a chance to go to even one of her sisters games. Jessie was so upset because the day that she became infected was the same day as her first game. She just couldn't find the energy to make it to school. Roxy couldn't blame her, it wasn't her fault. Roxy wandered around the room trying to do things to keep her mind from wandering without success. There was only so much that she could do before boredom set in. Hours upon hours were wasted during the day. There were only so many books that could be read and so many hours she could sleep. No internet, no cell service, and no television. It was a new level of boredom that was impossible not to feel. Eventually she just sat on the edge of the couch beside Sage, who had fallen asleep, and waited for him to wake up. She sat there for at least two hours, knowing she should have woken him, but she knew it wouldn't be fair. He awoke just after the first ear-splitting cry. He mumbled something barely audible, but Roxy was sure it involved a few choice words for the demonic creatures outside. "Sage." Roxy's voice was barely audible "What? Is everything okay? What's wrong?" He sat up and reached for the gun. "Everything's fine. Relax." The tension seemed to melt from his features as she spoke. "Are you okay?" His voice was thick with concern. It still amazed Roxy how Sage seemed to be able to read her thoughts. He knew how she felt without her saying one word. "You know me too well," She sighed deeply "I just miss everyone." "I miss everyone too, but there's nothing we can do about it sweetie." Roxy was used to the pet names and had actually begun to like them. Several times she found herself calling Sage names like Honey. She curled up beside him again but didn't say anything. It was relaxing. Neither of them hadn't felt this relaxed in months. Soon Roxy drifted off to sleep again. When she woke she was still in the same position. She breathed a sigh of relief when she realized that she had actually managed to sleep without having any dreams. Sage was still awake, absentmindedly playing with her hair. "I'm so exhausted." She complained into his chest. "We had a rough couple of days." He sighed, and continued to run his fingers through her hair. "I'm sorry about yesterday. I should've turned back when you said so. I know how you were just beginning to feel at home there. We'll make it back; I promise we'll make it back. I just need to find us a car. Then we'll be back home." "I know." "I know?" He asked. "Yes, Sage. I know. That's all I've got to say. I was feeling at home and now that I've lost that I can't stop thinking about my true home. Our home, Sage. With Mom, Dad, and Jessie. I miss it all. I miss going to school. I miss being able to go to the mall and doing things that normal Eighteen year olds do." She pushed herself off of him, and stood. "I hate this place Sage. I hate this world. We are alone, and we're more likely the only humans left that don't have whatever makes those monsters! I'd rather be one of them then be alone!" Roxy was never the kind of girl to throw a fit when something didn't go her way, unless it was something truly important to her, like when Sage needed a home. Right now she was just angry. Angry and upset. Suddenly, Sage grabbed her wrist and turned her towards him. His other hand moved to her jaw line and he leaned in till their lips just barely touched. He pulled back quickly to see what her reaction was. A small tear fell to her cheek and he gently wiped it off, and then leaned in for a kiss more passionate then the first. Immediately she melted into him. It seemed like they were meant to do this. Like they were meant to be all alone in this terrible new world. Soon a kiss turned into more. The last thing Roxy heard before she fell asleep was Sage whispering that he loved her. Before. Roxy didn't have the heart to stay in the abandoned home of her Uncle so the two quickly moved on. Roaming, in search of a place they could make secure. It wasn't easy. Most of major towns were completely shut down, no one could get it and no one could get out. Every where they went they ran into trouble. The zombies seemed to be growing in number by the day, but that wasn't all they had to worry about. Uninfected humans were just as dangerous. Gangs formed and took over almost all of the stores and gas stations. You could still buy gas at some of them, but only if you were willing to pay the price. Luckily, most of the people they came across were helpful to two teenagers, though none of them offered for Sage and Roxy to stay permanently.
After only a few weeks they arrived at their new home. It was just outside of Edmonds, and north of Seattle. Washington wasn't a place either of them had been before, but after driving around for what seemed years, they didn't have much of a choice. Their 'home' was actually part of a small gated community. For Sage it was the gate that caught his attention of the area, and after entering they realized it was deserted. Not a sole person in sight. The basement of the home was not completely underground. There was about two feet of raised concrete before the structure of the house actually began. Three concrete steps led to the front door of the house. It needed a lot of work, but after the few run ins they had on the trip there with the other humans and the zombies Sage was too cautious to go out and look for supplies. Instead they just used some old two-by-fours to cover up then windows and doors. The first night in the house was hell. Roxy heard the first of them shuffling around outside, and she tried to ignore it the best she could. The advice from one of the men they bought gas from was fresh in her mind, "Keep quiet, and they'll leave you alone." But they didn't stop. Roxy was barely breathing, and Sage was a silent sleeper, but they still didn't leave. They began to howl, and it wasn't until then that Sage woke up. Just as he made a motion to show that he was awake the first one slammed into wood blocking the door. Roxy couldn't help but scream, and Sage wasn't fast enough to cover her mouth to muffle the sound. The monsters outside went wild. Sage immediately reached for his gun, and Roxy followed him. She knew that there was no way they could kill all of them. They began to surround the house; their bodies were slamming into not only the front door but all of the windows. Roxy's heart was racing in her chest. She moved close to Sage and grabbed his shaking, sweaty hand. They stood like that as they waited for the wood to smash and the monsters to storm in. October 8, 2016 When Roxy woke she felt comfortable, the familiar smell of Sage soothed her and she didn't want to move. It wasn't until she realized that neither of them had clothes on that she scrambled out of the bed and covered herself with a nearby blanket. "Sage! What did we do?" Her screaming barely stirred him. It wasn't until she hit his chest that he finally woke. "What are you doing?" He asked groggily. "What do you mean what am I doing?" She screamed. "What did we do?" "Well Roxy you did take health class. You shouldn't need me to explain." "This isn't funny Sage! Do you not realize that we didn't use anything?" "Oh!" He sat up now. "I didn't even think" He rubbed his temples with his pointer fingers. "I didn't either! Sage how could we be so stupid!" She collapsed on the couch beside him and put her head in her hands in despair. Sage didn't reply, and for that Roxy was grateful. Sage eventually said he was going out to look for a new car. She spent most of the day on the couch. Thinking about how stupid they had been. A few times she laughed at the irony of the situation, but her laughter always turned into tears. All throughout their teenage years both of their parents feared that their hormones would take control over them and somehow Roxy would have ended up pregnant. She never thought about having sex back when the world was normal, but now that the world was destroyed her hormones had taken over. When Sage returned he told her that he had found a car, but by then it was too late to make the four hour drive back to Edmonds from Abbotsford. Neither of them spoke much that night. Roxy heated two cans of soup on the stove and realized that she couldn't eat, so Sage ate her portion. After dinner Sage tried to talk to Roxy about what had happened, but she just buried her head into the pillow on the couch and cried herself to sleep. Roxy woke from a restless sleep and was somewhat disappointed to find Sage sleeping on the floor. She glanced at the watch on her wrist and noted that it was just after six. The zombies would be gone soon and they could head home. Normally, she would have woken Sage, but instead she rolled back over and closed her eyes. That morning they left as soon as it was safe. It felt good to return to their 'home'. Even though the car Sage had found barely had enough gas to make the trip back. It wasn't until they reached their destination that they relaxed. As Roxy unlocked the door she realized just how tense she had been, both her back and jaw ached. The next few days went by slowly. Roxy spent most of her time in the bedroom, sulking like a small child who just lost their favorite stuffed animal. She was scared to death, and was trying her best to hide that from Sage, but it didn't work. Again Sage tried to talk to her about what had happened. The first time she didn't say anything to him, but stood up and walked to the room where she usually slept and shut the door. She was angry with both herself and Sage, and talking about what had happened only made her angrier. The next time Sage brought up the subject Roxy lost her temper. She slammed the book that she was reading shut and tossed it on the table before yelling at Sage to just shut up and leave her alone. The entire time Sage stared at her dumbfounded. It wasn't like Roxy to yell in tough situations, and he didn't know what he could do. After she finished screaming at him she stormed out of the house, leaving the front door open. Sage watched her slam the car door shut before speeding off down the road. When Roxy returned just before sunset she found Sage lying on the couch. His eyes were puffy and red. Roxy's heart ached when she saw him, and she curled up with him on the couch with tears forming in her eyes. She buried her head into Sage's chest and repetitively apologized. "I've been acting like a five year old." She said, her voice muffled by his shirt. "It's okay. We will be okay." He promised into her hair. Before. It was Roxy who noticed that the zombies didn't like the daylight. She had spent the entire night glancing anxiously from the doorway to the watch on her wrist. She felt as if she had been hearing the screaming from the monsters outside for days, but in reality it was only minutes. Eventually, she noticed that the screams were diminishing. She waited for Sage to say something about it but he didn't seem to know that they were leaving. Eventually there was silence. Roxy breathed a sigh of relief, but Sage was still tense. His hands were ghostly white from the grip that he had on his shotgun, and his jaw was clenched. "Sage." Roxy whispered but he didn't seem to hear her. "Sage." She repeated, and this time nudged him with her elbow. Again, there was no reply. Instead of waiting for Sage, Roxy decided to go check if they had left for herself. She took a deep breath and slowly stood up. Her joints were stiff from sitting in the same position the entire night and her head was pounding, but she still made her way across the room and to a nearby window. She tiptoed through the shattered glass on the floor. Before she even reached the window she noticed that the two-by-fours had bent inward from the pressure. A small patch of light was shining through one of the openings between the boards. Roxy worked up the nerve to look outside, but immediately wished she hadn't. The grass was stained completely red. Out of the small area that she could see there were only a few small patches of green, but that wasn't the worst part. Bodies were sprawled across the lawn, all of them unmoving. Before Roxy could take it all in she felt Sage's hands on her shoulders pulling her away. "They're gone. Or dead." Her voice was barely audible. "All of them?" To Roxy it sounded as if he was screaming. She couldn't find her voice again so instead she just shook her head. "Stay here." He commanded. "I'm going out." Roxy couldn't make herself stay inside while he went out. When she reached the door her heart dropped. The door was almost completely shattered. Roxy had no idea how it had held up. Most of the two-by-fours were snapped in half and ripped off of the door frame. There were only six left, and all of those were the ones they put inside the door frame just in case. Sage began to cut down the remaining two-by-fours with an ax that they had found the day before. When he finished the whole thing was covered in a thick layer of red. The monsters had destroyed each other in their attempt to get to Sage and Roxy. Outside the door was a pile of bodies. "We have to get rid of them" As he spoke his eyes never left a head that was almost completely torn from its body. "We need to fortify this place first if this is where we are going to stay." Roxy had moved back into the house. The smell of the blood alone was making her queasy; she didn't think she could look at the pile of mangled bodies without throwing up. Finding the tools and supplies to fortify the house was easy. There was a home depot only a mile or so away and plenty of trucks still left to haul what they needed back to the house. The gate that had surrounded the community was destroyed. Sage and Roxy had to move the bent and broken pieces of metal out of the road to exit the community. By four in the afternoon the two were exhausted. Their clothes were drenched with sweat, but they felt the house was now safe enough to stay in for the night. Even with the house safe they knew their work wasn't done yet. They had spent the day working around the body parts of the zombies and they knew if they left them there for the night there would just be more to do tomorrow, and they'd have to make any repairs to the damages of the next wave of zombies. It was Sage who thought to take the bodies to the dump. "It's not like we need to bury them." He said. The dump was about a half hour away and they figured that if they both drove a truck-bed full a piece they'd get rid of them all. During the "clean up" they actually made more of a mess. Within the first twenty minutes of shoveling the body parts into the back of the truck, Roxy had puked twice. After the second time she kicked the almost decapitated head that Sage was staring at earlier. "Go to hell." She said as the head fell off completely and rolled down the steps. It came to a stop just before Sage's feet. When he looked up to Roxy he noticed she was laughing. "What is so funny?" His voice was thick with irritation. "We are so stupid." Her laughter started to build and she had to take a minute to calm herself down before she continued. "Why don't we just burn them?" Burning the bodies proved to be much easier than hauling them to the dump, but the smell was almost unbearable. The smell of burnt flesh and hair was something Roxy and Sage would never get used to. By the time the flames had settled it was almost five o'clock, which meant that they still had another hour or so until they had to be safely inside. It was Roxy who grabbed Sage's wrist and pulled him towards the pool. When Sage realized where she was taking him he followed eagerly. Roxy stopped by the edge and began to take off the blood-soaked t-shirt, and jeans. Sage did the same. Together they jumped into the pool wearing only their under clothes.
January 19, 2017 By now Roxy was spending most of her morning on the small bathroom floor. She kept trying to blame it on the nerves, but Sage knew that it was much more than that. Roxy was pregnant, and they would have to bring a child into this hellish new world. Roxy became very distant. Sage tried to give her food but she would never touch it. Instead, she spent most of her time during the day staring at random objects in the living room, and at night she would simply listen to the shrieks and wails coming from the terrible creatures outside. Finally, Sage snapped. Roxy was lying on her bed staring at the ceiling when she heard him in the kitchen muttering to himself. Eventually, he brought out bowl filled with soup and put it in front of her. "Eat." "Not hungry." She didn't even look at him as she spoke in a cold, uncaring voice "Roxy Coleman, you need to eat." He pleaded. "I said I'm not hungry." "Look at you Roxy, you look dead. I am sick of seeing you like this. You're killing yourself and you're killing that baby. I won’t let that happen." Sage put his hand on Roxy's rounded stomach. She was about four months along now, but to Sage it seemed like she had lost weight instead of gaining. When she didn't reply he continued. "Is that what you want Roxy? To die? Is it your plan to just wither away into nothing and take our child with you? " The anger in his voice seemed to stir something in her.”Of course it's not. I'm just not hungry." For the first time in months she seemed to show some emotion, but it wasn't good enough for Sage. "That's bull Roxy and you and I both know it. If you want to die you can do it a quicker way. Walk outside. Let those monsters tear you apart. Actually, if things don't change I'll just open the door and let them in. I'm sure they'd appreciate that." He stood up, clearly unable to control his anger. His voice had risen to a shout and his face was beginning to redden. "That's not what I want Sage and you know that." Roxy's voice was just above a whisper, and Sage wasn't even sure he heard her correctly. "If that isn't what you want then eat something. Stop starving yourself and that child. Our child." With that he stormed out of her room. Roxy heard a door slam, but she couldn't tell which one. She glanced at a clock and noted that it was before noon. She didn't have to worry about him going out right now. Instead she tried to do things to keep her mind off of him. Her first priority was to eat. After their fight she realized she was completely famished. She took the bowl of soup from were Sage had left it and took a bite. Within minutes it was gone, but Roxy's hunger wasn't. She walked to the kitchen and took out another can. She lit the stove with a match. Luckily the home they had chosen had a gas stove, and with everyone gone they didn't have to pay a gas bill. While she waited for the soup to warm up she decided to go to the bathroom and look at herself in the mirror. Immediately she realized that Sage was right, she did look dead. Under her sea-green eyes were purple circles that looked almost black against her pale-grey skin. Her light brown hair was knotted and tangled in a long pony tail high up on her head. She barely recognized herself. Although she had always been small she looked really unhealthy now. She lifted up the over sized t-shirt that she was wearing, and could see her rib cage. Beneath them was the small bump. She wasn't ready to be a mother, she didn't think that she'd ever be, but she had to face the truth. She was having Sage's child, and couldn't think just for herself anymore. She had to grow up now; the time to act childish was over. Eventually she went back to the kitchen and poured her soup into a bowl, and took to the couch to eat. She tried to pace herself, she had eaten so little for so long and she didn't want to upset her stomach. After she finished her bowl of soup she just waited for Sage to come back, but by 6:30 Roxy began to worry, and when he didn't come back by the first shriek she was frantic.
It wasn't like Sage to not come home and Roxy's first thought was that he was dead. At first she was just angry, but she couldn't decipher whether she was angry at him or at herself. She didn't cry until after she punched the wall. The pain from the punch brought forth the pain of her loss. Even though there was a slight chance he was alive she wouldn't let herself believe it. She would much rather assume he was dead and rejoice when he wasn't, then spend the rest of her life waiting for him to come home.
Before. They got out of the pool and were drying off when they heard the first of them outside. Even with the reinforcements on the house they still didn't feel completely safe, so they didn't sleep. It wasn't until Sage said something about them starting to leave that Roxy fell asleep. When she woke up Sage was gone, but she could smell the burning flesh. She took her time going outside. She figured that most of the bodies were burning by now but she didn't want to risk having to carry more bloody body parts to the fire. When she finally made it outside she noticed that the pile was smaller than it was the day before. "Maybe they will just kill each other off. Till there's none left." She said to Sage who was facing the flames, with his hands in his pockets. On the ground to his left was a bright yellow rain jacket was smeared with red. "Where did you find that?" She asked. "I made a trip to home depot today. The place was a mess, but I managed to find this, and I got one for you too. So we don't have to get their blood all over us." "Good idea. We can just rinse them off and reuse it." She turned back towards the house, unable to stand the potent smell of burning flesh for any longer. Soon after Sage followed her, and laid down on the floor. Roxy could easily tell that he hadn't slept at all. His face was covered with dirt and Roxy assumed blood too. His long black hair was pushed out of his face and sticking up in different directions. "You're a mess. Why don't you go clean up a little?" When he didn't move Roxy slid off her position on the couch and ran her fingers through his damp hair. "You smell like sweat." She teased. "I worked hard this morning, and I'd rather smell like sweat than like chlorine." The potent smell from their time in the pool hadn't faded. Roxy had added more to the pool after they cleaned off, so she knew that if he went in now it'd be even worse than before. "Then just use the shower. It'll probably be freezing though." "I'd rather stink." He mumbled. "If you go clean up I'll make dinner." She tried to sound enthusiastic, but canned goods weren't appetizing anymore. "I'd rather starve than eat any more canned soup." "Well it's not like I can drive downtown and pick up a pizza, Sage." He took a deep breath and pushed himself up off of the floor without replying. Silently he walked towards the bathroom. It took a few minutes for Roxy to force herself to the kitchen. She was sick of soup too, but it wasn't like they could just go to the super market and pick up food. By now all of the food was gone. At the last store they went to most of what was left was rotting on the shelves. They had taken whatever was left and most of that was already gone. They had a few bags of chips, but they couldn't make that a meal. What Roxy really wanted was a loaf of bread, or a gallon of milk. Less than a year ago she took things like that for granted. If she wanted milk all she had to do was walk to the refrigerator, and if there wasn't any there the grocery store was less than five blocks away. Now a trip to the grocery store could kill them if they weren't careful, and most likely there was nothing good left anyways. While Roxy stared blankly towards the canned food in the cupboard she realized that they may have to start to hunt if they wanted food other than soup. They had picked up enough weapons and ammo along the way, but neither of them had ever been hunting. Roxy had taken a hunters education course but that was just to make her father happy. By the time Sage returned from the bathroom Roxy had two bowls of steaming vegetable beef soup on the table. She saw Sage roll his eyes when he saw it but he still sat down and began to eat. When he finished he looked up at Roxy who was staring at him intently. "What?" He asked as he wiped his chin with the sleeve of his shirt. "I have a plan, but I don't know how well it will work." As she spoke she let go of her spoon and it slid down into her half eaten soup. "A plan for what?" "To get food." "We have food." "We have soup, and outdated potato chips." "We have more than that." "Really? Like what?" Roxy was the one who always took inventory of the food, and she knew anything else Sage said would be wrong. "We have some granola bars," Sage's voice was thick with confidence, but Roxy knew better. "You ate the last one a week ago." "And pop-tarts." Sage continued, trying to ignore Roxy's interruptions. "Gone before we even made it here." "Fine Roxy, you're right we have no food. Now what's this brilliant plan of yours.”? "It's simple really, we hunt." For a few moments Sage didn't say anything. Instead, he leaned back in his chair and seemed to relax. "That actually is a brilliant plan, except for we have never been hunting before." "How hard can it be? We've shot plenty of those zombies, it can't be much different." "Where would we go?" "I don't know we'd have to find somewhere, but that can't be too hard." "True, we can go tomorrow. Today, I just want to..." His last words faded as he drifted off to sleep. January 20, 2017
As soon as she could Roxy hurried to the car and began to drive. She had to look for him. There was no certainty that he was dead, he could've gone too far again and had to stay at the house they had been at the night Roxy had gotten pregnant. That was where she had decided to check first. It was the only place she could check today; the trip was over four hours one way. She would have to hurry back home to make it back before the sun set. The trip itself was exhausting. She had listened to the CD that was in the stereo of the car twice before she had to turn it down. Her head was pounding and she had to pull over a few times from fear of passing out.
When she finally arrived at the house she bolted from the car. It took her a few minutes to get her shaking fingers to unlock all of the locks on the door and then run up the stairs. The whole time she was screaming his name, but she didn't know if she would even hear if he yelled back.
When she finally made it into the room she was devastated. Sage wasn't there, and there was no sign that he had been. She decided that she could wait a few hours to see if he showed up, but the hours passed quickly. Too soon she was in the car and on her way back to Edmonds.
She barely made it back before sun set. She was about ten minutes away from the house when she saw the first one. It was a female, but Roxy could only tell by the torn fabric that hung over her breasts. The cloth was stained with red and brown. The skin on the left side of her face was mostly gone. The few pieces of skin that were left had turned black. Roxy shivered as she passed her and silently hoped that she wouldn't follow. Thankfully she didn't.
The low fuel light on the dashboard was blinking red and had been for over an hour, but she knew she didn't have time to stop and look for a gas pump that actually worked. She knew that pretty soon the car would stop. She just hoped that she wouldn't have to sprint to the house.
For the next five minutes she drove as fast as she could. More of them were coming out to the streets now, their black eyes following her as she sped past. Still, none of them followed, but that didn't make her feel safe. She was guessing that there were going to be some already on their way to the house. She tried to keep her eyes on the road, but even if her eyes weren't seeing them she could still picture them in her mind. All she could picture was Sage standing among them. His blue eyes now as black as his hair, which would be falling out in clumps. The thought was almost too much to bear. Her eyes had just begun to water when the car sputtered and died.
She only about five minutes away from the house, but that was by car. She didn't know how long it would take her to run there, but she didn't waste any time. She bolted from the car and took off in a sprint. Both Sage and she had done a lot of running since they left their home in Virginia, and so she was in good condition. Or so she thought. For the past three months she had done nothing but sit on the couch, and she was very malnourished. Within minutes she was exhausted. Her legs had begun to give out on her, her heart was racing, and her head was throbbing in time with it. She was just about to slow down, but quickly looked behind her first to see if there were any of them following her.
There were four of them. They weren't moving very quickly, but that could change once the sun had finally set. She was still two blocks away and by now her legs felt like jelly, but she pressed on. As she sprinted around the last corner she could hear the heavy footsteps of the monsters closing in on her. With the last of her energy she made it to the yard. All that stood between her and the house was the three steps and the locked door. She was going to make it, until her foot got caught on the last step and she fell forward.
She rolled onto her back to protect her swollen stomach, and pulled the pistol she had strapped to her waist out of the holster. Six shots. Sage had taken the pistol that used a clip and left her with the revolver, and she knew she wouldn't have time to reload. Six shots for four zombies. She had to make them count.
The first shot entered through the closest zombie's right eye. It staggered forward but fell a few feet short of the first step. Before the first one hit the ground, the second and third bullets had entered the next two monsters. The second kept moving, but Roxy had slowed it down enough to take care of the others. The third dropped instantly, with a hole in the center of its forehead. The fourth took two bullets to drop; one in the chest and the other between the eyes. She had one bullet left to kill the one that she had wounded with the second shot. Before she had time to pull the trigger, the zombie had reached her. Even with the wound the zombie was fast. Its grey hand had grabbed Roxy by the ankle and began to pull. She was paralyzed with fear. Her only thought was to save the child that was growing in her stomach. She kicked with her other foot and it collided with the nose of her attacker. The zombie was stunned, and Roxy used this to her advantage and lined the sights of the pistol to the center of the zombie’s forehead and pulled the trigger.
The strength left the zombies grip and she pulled her ankle free. As quickly as possible she unlocked the door and hurried inside. As she closed the door she saw that at least a dozen of them had reached the lawn. She locked the door and collapsed on the floor.
Before.
The next morning Sage loaded the vehicle with two rifles and a stock pile of ammunition. He handed Roxy a pistol and a holster. Instead of strapping it onto her waist she dropped it in the passenger seat of the truck that they were driving today.
"You really should wear that." Sage said as he strapped the holster to her waist.
"We are getting in the car anyways. Besides, it drags my jeans down." Roxy had always been really skinny, even though she ate like crazy, but because of their lack of nutritional food, she was too small.
"We can look for some clothes today too."
"If we kill something today maybe we can have decent meals and I can gain my weight back."
"Don't get your hopes up, sweetie."
"Well then we better go to a children's store, that's the only place I'll be able to find jeans that fit."
"Isn't that where you shopped before?"
"Funny." Roxy replied sarcastically.
Sage started the truck and began to drive without any true destination. They agreed that they'd only hunt till three, and then they would go look for some clothes. They had driven for an hour before they found a clearing surrounded by forest. Sage suggested that they sit beside a tree at the edge and wait for game. They had been sitting for three hours when Roxy broke the silence.
"Nothing is just going to walk out of the trees and let us shoot it." Her voice startled Sage, whose eyes had been closed for the past hour.
"Well, what else do you want to do?"
"Why don't we go into the woods and actually hunt?" Roxy's voice was thick with attitude. She was exhausted, her head was pounding, and her stomach was aching from hunger. For the past three hours she had day dreamed of sinking her teeth into venison, or anything that didn't come from a can.
"I have a feeling that deer wouldn't be the only thing we found if we went in." As Sage spoke he stood up and stretched. Roxy reached for his hand and stood up too.
"Well, I can't sit here any longer. Let's go someplace else." She picked up Sage's rifle from where it leaned against the tree they had sat beneath and handed it to him.
It was just past noon when Sage started the truck and began to drive again. After another hour of driving, Roxy had given up hope. They were only about forty-five minutes away from their home and they still had two hours left to hunt.
"Let's just go look for clothes." Roxy finally said after another twenty minutes of driving through the wooded area.
Sage didn't reply, but he turned the vehicle around and headed back towards Edmonds. As they entered the small town, Roxy looked solemnly out the window.
Everything was destroyed. All of the houses were deserted, and most had been so for months. Cars lined the street. Many of them had no windows; the glass lay shattered on the ground outside. As Roxy looked at the old stores that used to line the road she tried to imagine what they had sold. Some were easy to tell, with the remnants of their products still lying scattered on the sidewalks. It was obvious that there had been riots before they arrived. People had taken everything they would need for their journey, and then they fled. It was similar in all the towns they had traveled through to get here, but Roxy had never noticed how beautiful this small town used to be.
"Such a shame." She said, almost to herself.
"What?" Sage questioned.
"This place used to be so beautiful. Now it's a disaster."
"Roxy, the whole world used to be beautiful. No one noticed until it wasn't anymore. Now it's just a beautiful mess."
Roxy thought about what he said until they reached the outlet in which they usually found their clothes. The outlet was small. It had only a few stores but most of it had been untouched before they had found it. Except for the grocery store, naturally that was empty. Roxy went into one of the clothing stores and grabbed everything off of the racked marked small. When Sage saw the large pile of clothes she held in her arms he did the same with the clothes on the rack he was at.
After they had managed to get all of their clothes in the truck, they decided to just go back to their house.
"We haven't had any lucky hunting; we should go back now before our luck gets even worse." Sage said as he started the car.
On the way home, Roxy turned up the radio. Of course there were no stations, but they had obtained a stockpile of CDs during the travels. Roxy threw in one of her favorites; a mix-tape with a large variety of songs that Roxy had never heard before they found the CD. She had since memorized the words to every one of the songs and had just begun to sing her favorite when the car slammed into a deer that had tried to sprint across the road.
Sage had tried to stop the truck, but his efforts were pointless. For a few moments they sat in the cab in silence, stunned from the sudden stop. Roxy was the first out; she jogged to the front of the vehicle and stood over the deer. When she saw that it wasn't breathing, she laughed, and Sage gave her a questioning look from the other side of the vehicle.
"Only we would have better luck hunting by driving." Roxy could barely control her laughter while she tried to speak.
"You really need to get more sleep, Roxy." He shook his head as he spoke, and reached his hand in his back pocket for his knife. "Or else you're going to go insane." With that he began to gut the deer.
"What are you doing?" Roxy cried as Sage's knife cut into the deer’s flesh.
"We have to gut it." Sage's attention never left the deer as he spoke.
"How do you know that?" Roxy knew that Sage had never been hunting.
"My Uncle Jeff told me about it once. Remember when we went to Ohio to visit him?"
"Yea, it was a few years ago. For Christmas right?"
"More than a few years actually. I was only ten. But when we got to his house he was skinning a deer and I remember asking him why there was a huge hole in its stomach.” By now he had finished slicing through the deer's flesh and Roxy had to back away because of the stench that followed. ”He told me that you had to gut it, he didn't exactly show me how, but he described it. “Sage reached his hand into the deer, and began to cut. Roxy turned away from the sight, and didn't turn back until she heard him say "That's disgusting."
The pile of intestines and lungs lay on the ground beside the deer, which was now tilted on its side. Sage's arms were covered with blood and hair all the way to his elbows. "Not nearly as neat as Uncle Jeff, but not too bad."
"Sure." Roxy agreed. "Now what?"
"We take it back home and do our best to get the most amount of meat off of it."
"How about you do that and I'll just cook it." Roxy said, still disgusted by the pile of steaming guts lying on the ground.
"Fine. But help me put it in the back."
"Really?" Roxy asked in disbelief but still walked closer the deer.
"Grab its legs." Sage instructed her, and she did. When they picked the deer up a stream of blood gushed out from the opening in its stomach and Roxy almost gagged.
"Just think, tomorrow we will be eating something other than soup." Sage's mention of food pushed Roxy of the edge and she dropped the deer and ran a few steps before puking.
"Jerk" She said when she finished. "Why would you do that?"
Sage didn't answer her, but his smile was enough. "Just help me with this, please?" He gestured to the deer.
"It's not funny. Do it yourself." Roxy said, mostly to comfort herself. After a few minutes, she finally obliged and grabbed the deer by its legs and hoisted it into the truck.
Sage used a water bottle to wash some of the blood off of his arms before getting in the truck. When he opened the door Roxy was waiting impatiently. Her arms were crossed and her face was stern with frustration.
"What's wrong?" Sage asked, already knowing that she was disgusted by what she had just seen.
"Just drive." She said. "I just want to go home."
"You should probably brush your teeth when we get back." He smiled his usual devilish grin. Roxy leaned over and punched him in the arm. Even though she tried to make the punch actually hurt, it didn't. Sage's smile didn't leave his face the entire drive home.
January 23, 2017.
Three full days had gone by since Roxy had seen Sage, and today was number four. She hadn't given up hope completely, but she couldn't go look for him again. The grip that the zombie had had on her ankle left a bruise in the shape of its hand, and now Roxy could barely walk. The swelling had gone down immensely in the past two days, but it still hurt. She couldn't risk being stuck outside and not even being able to run.
Instead she spent the past two days sitting on the couch rereading old books, and eating. She was surprised by the return of her appetite. For three months she wouldn't eat unless she had to, and now she was eating everything that she possibly could. She was on her second bowl of clam chowder when she heard a noise outside the door. Immediately, she reached for the pistol on the end table beside her. It was loaded with six shots, but Roxy had another fifty shells in the pocket of the grey sweatpants she was wearing.
She stood and limped to the door, trying to make the least amount of sound as she could with her swollen ankle. Instead of opening the door and shooting anything that was there, Roxy just listened. The longer she listened the less the noise sounded human. After she was sure that it wasn't human, she decided to open the door, but carefully. When the door opened she saw nothing out of the ordinary. She limped out of the doorway with her pistol ready to fire.
When the dog whimpered she almost shot it. It was a chocolate lab. Roxy only knew that because one of her neighbors had one that looked exactly like it, but larger and better nourished. Roxy had countless days of her childhood outside playing with the dog, and had cried when she passed away shortly after Jessie was born.
The dog was lying on the bottom step, with its right hind leg bent against its body protectively. It made no attempt to snap at Roxy as she limped down the first step and sat down on the next, but the dog shied away from her when she first reached towards him, and so Roxy decided it would be best if she let him come to her.
After a few minutes the dog worked his way toward her slowly. His noise wiggled as he sniffed at her hand. When he didn't back away Roxy gently began to pet his head.
When she noticed how small the dog was, Roxy's heart almost broke. She could see every one of his ribs, and she thought she could wrap her hands around his hips without a problem. Roxy tried to coax the dog into the house, but when the dog stood up Roxy knew that he couldn't make it up the three steps to the doorway. The dog's leg was bloody and there was no way that he could put weight on it. With much effort, Roxy was able to pick the dog up and carry him up the steps. The pain in her ankle was excruciating, but she couldn't leave the dog outside.
When she reached the top of the steps she set him back down and they both limped into the house. The dog quickly lay down on the floor and closed its eyes, and Roxy wished she could do the same. Instead of collapsing on the couch like she wanted to, she walked into the kitchen and grabbed some gauze out of the first aid kit. She also grabbed a bowl and filled it with water before limping back to the living room. When she placed the bowl in front of the dog he woke up and began to drink. While his tongue lapped at the water, Roxy began to wrap the dog's leg with gauze. It wasn't an easy task. As soon as she touched the injured leg the dog snapped at her fingers. She was barely able to pull her fingers away as the dog clenched its teeth together. His upper lip curled back as he growled at her, and so she quickly backed away.
After an hour of waiting she tried again. This time she spoke calmly as she did it. "I'm going to help you." She tried to keep her voice as cheerful as possible as she poured some water onto the dog's bloody hind leg. After she washed the blood off she was able to get a good look at the dogs wound. She assumed that he had broken his leg, and so was surprised to see that the there was no bone showing. It looked as if the dog had been in a fight with something, perhaps another dog. Sage and she had seen packs of wild dogs several times, so it wasn't a surprise that the dog had been injured in a fight.
Roxy had just begun to wrap the dog’s leg when she heard the first shriek. The dog whimpered, but Roxy couldn't tell if it was from the pain in its leg or the fear of the demons who were about to surround the house. The whimpering continued even after she had stopped, and so Roxy tried to comfort him by petting him. After a few minutes Roxy noticed that she was making no difference, and so she limped to the kitchen to make a bowl of soup.
As she opened the can and poured its contents into a pot on the stove the dog limped into the room. She knelt down and the dog licked her face. "It's okay. Are you hungry? Do you want some food?" At the word 'food', the dog’s ears perked up and the gesture made Roxy smile. "I'll make you some soup too." She took out another can of soup and added it to the pot on the stove.
Instead of limping back to the living room, Roxy just sat on the floor beside her new companion and waited for the soup to heat up. She took this time to evaluate the dog’s condition again. Besides from his leg, there were only a few other noticeable problems, the major one being fleas. The dog had been scratching and biting at his fur excessively since Roxy brought him inside; there were even a few spots where his fur was almost completely gone from where the fleas were the worst. Roxy figured that it wouldn't be hard to find some flea medicine in one of the abandoned pharmacies nearby. Most people wouldn't think of taking flea medicine when they were raiding the stores, and even if it was outdated it still would be worth a try.
The dog's weight was also a problem. She could easily make out every one of his ribs and she had no trouble picking the dog up even with her injured ankle. The only way to fix that was to give him food, and with Sage gone that wouldn't be a problem.
When the food was done Roxy poured half of it into a bowl for herself and the other in a larger bowl for the dog. She carefully carried the bowls to the living room and sat the larger on the floor beside the couch. The dog eagerly began to eat, and had finished the bowl before Roxy was half way done. After a few minutes of the dog staring at her with its large brown eyes, Roxy gave in and set the rest of her bowl on the floor.
"Are you happy now?" The dog looked up hopefully at her voice, expecting more food. When he saw that there was no more he laid down. Roxy began to pet his head with one hand and held her stomach protectively with the other. Eventually they both drifted off to sleep.
Before.
That night they cooked half of the venison and the next morning the other half. They couldn't refrigerate it, because there was no electricity, so for the next week that was all they ate. It was delicious, at first, but by the end of the week even Sage was excited for a bowl of soup.
They had developed a routine, in the morning they'd eat breakfast before suiting up in their yellow rain jackets to go take care of the bodies that were scattered around the front yard. They would then clean off in one of the pools in the community. By then it was lunch time, and after lunch they'd either make repairs on the house or find a way to occupy their time inside.
One morning, after washing off in one of the pools, Roxy decided that she didn't want to stick to the same routine.
"It's been two weeks since we hit the deer and all we've done is eaten and burn bodies." She yelled from her room as she changed into clean clothes.
"Well what do you want to do? Go shopping? I think we have enough cash." He replied while walking out of his room and putting on a blue t-shirt.
"Funny." Roxy's voice was thick with sarcasm as she walked into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water from their supply in the closet.
"Well, what do you want me to say? What are we supposed to do with our spare time?"
"I don't know, but there has to be something we can do. I can't even bear to read anymore, and I used to read for hours a day when we had electricity."
"I'm sorry, Roxy. Life isn't the same as it used to be."
"Thank you, Captain Obvious." She leaned backwards over the arm of the couch until she was laying down with her feet hanging over the edge.
"Do you want to go for a drive?" Sage sat down beside her head and began to run his fingers through her hair. “You really need to wash this." He said teasingly.
"My hair is fine." Even though she said it she pulled her hair up into a pony tail “Do you really want to waste gas?"
"Not really, it's getting harder to find. How about a walk?"
"That's a good idea." Roxy rolled off the couch and grabbed her pistol off of the stand where she usually placed it. She grabbed her ammunition out of the drawer and turned back towards Sage, who was strapping his pistol around his waist. "Should we take the rifles too?"
"I think we will be okay without them. Don't you?"
"Yea, we will be okay." She followed Sage out of the door way and knocked her knuckles against the wooden door frame.
"Good idea." Sage said when he heard the knocking. "Better not to test our luck."
They walked for an hour until stumbling upon an old school with a play ground. The school was destroyed. Almost all of the windows were broken, and the grass had grown at least a foot. The playground was in good condition though. Somehow the equipment was still in good condition and instead of grass there was a layer of small pebbles. Roxy stopped in mid-sentence when she saw it, and took off at a dead sprint. When she reached the swings she turned back towards Sage.
"Are you coming or not?" She teased Sage, who couldn't help but to laugh. He hadn't seen Roxy act like this since they were kids, and he couldn't remember the last time she had truly smiled.
They spent three hours on the playground. Roxy wanted to stay longer, but it would've been too dangerous to stay. On their way home Roxy asked Sage if they could do that more often.
"Only if I get to see you smile like that more." He didn't look up as he spoke. Instead, he kept his eyes locked on the crumbling pavement beneath his feet.
"It felt good to have some fun.” Roxy's cheeks were rose colored as she spoke.
"We will have to go more often then. Whenever we don't need to fortify the house we will come."
"Good."
Sage looked up from the ground and at Roxy. It was in that moment that he realized he would do absolutely anything to see her smile.
January 26, 2017.
The sun was shining brightly from its highest point in the sky as Roxy swung her legs back and began to swing. The playground was the same as always, but the school seemed even more haunting than usual. It was a beautiful summer day, and without the school looming over her, Roxy would have been able to believe that she was at her home in Virginia.
She couldn't off ask for a better day. The sun was hot, but the breeze from swinging made her feel comfortable, and she really didn't want to leave. A brown dog was running through the high grass of the school yard at a full sprint, more than likely chasing after some sort of animal that he would never catch.
She swung for hours, until she looked down at her watch and realized that the sun would set in an hour or so, and she had to make it home by then. She slipped on the light jacket she had brought with her and whistled for the dog. Roxy smiled as he bounded out from the tall grass and towards her, his bright pink tongue hanging out of his mouth the entire time. He ran a full circle around her and stopped directly in front of her, his chest rising and falling heavily from the hard running he had done since they came to the playground.
"Time to go home." She said and the dog fell into step directly beside her.
She was happy, and it felt like she had not been this happy in years. But, in the pit of her stomach she felt as if there was something wrong. She just didn't know what.
Time flew on the walk home and before Roxy knew it the sun was setting. It wasn't until then that she noticed the swelling of her stomach. Being pregnant was surprising to her, but she hadn't realized how far along she was. She knew that she should start to run, or at least jog to make it back to the house in time, but her back and feet ached. Instead of running she picked it up to a fast walk.
Suddenly, the world around her darkened. The sun had gone down and she was still a few blocks away from the house. She glanced behind her and saw the silhouette of one of them, and then two, and then three. Before she knew it there were dozens chasing after her. She tried to run, but the bulge in her abdomen prevented her from sprinting at her full potential.
She managed to get the road that their house was on before the first one reached her. She heard its footsteps closing in on her and she reached for the pistol in the holster at her waist. She turned and raised the guns sights on the forehead of the closest. She was about to pull the trigger when she recognized him.
"Sage?" She said, halfheartedly expecting the sound of her voice to stop him. When she realized it wasn't she pulled the trigger and emptied four shots into his chest.
He staggered, but still didn't fall. She had two shots left, but her entire body was trembling so bad she didn't know if she could hit anything.
"Sage, please." She cried out, forgetting all of the others that had to be closing in on her. She only saw his face. The skin was no longer its usual bright color, but replaced with a dull grey. But it was his eyes that frightened Roxy the most. The usual bright blue was now as black as pitch, and surrounded by a sea of bloodshot red. He was still wearing the same clothes that he had left wearing, but they were stained with blood and dirt.
With tears in her eyes she shot again. This time the bullet missed him, but landed in another behind him. Roxy didn't even see it fall to the ground as she emptied her last shot towards Sage. The bullet entered through his left eye, but he didn't stop. Roxy kept pulling the trigger of the pistol but to no avail. She couldn't make her feet move until Sage was upon her. She began to run but Sage had grabbed hold of her wrist. Before she knew what happened she was lying on the ground, and Sage was lying on top of her, blood streaming from the holes in his eyes and chest. Roxy tried to push him away, but as she reached out to push him he grabbed her by her wrist and clenched his teeth on her hand.
When Roxy screamed the dog came running to her the best that he could with his injured leg. Roxy had tears streaming down her cheeks and was drenched in a cold sweat. She buried her face in her hands as the dog paced in front of her and tried several times to get her attention.
It wasn't until the dog barked that she lifted her head. "I'm okay." She said after the dog limped closer to her and licked her elbow. "It was just a bad dream." She kept repeating to herself, as she ran her hand over the dog's back. Eventually the dog walked to the kitchen to get a drink. Roxy was still half-frozen with fear and couldn't seem to make herself stand. When the dog returned, Roxy helped him up onto the couch. She felt more comfortable with him right beside her, and she wasn't planning on getting up today. Even the thought of disposing of the bodies that probably were scattered across the yard made Roxy shiver. She much preferred to have a relaxing day on the couch.
Roxy figured that the dog was probably previously owned, and therefore it must have had a name. She felt as if she was going insane as she sat beside the dog and said as many names as she could think of, hoping for some kind of response from the dog, but she couldn't let herself think about her dream. After a few hours of name-calling she had given up.
"I'll just call you something else then.” She said, and the dog perked its head up.
"Am I getting close?" She asked the dog, and he responded by licking her hand.
"Didn't think so." Roxy realized that talking to the dog like a human was probably a sign of insanity, but she felt that if she didn't talk to someone, or something she would have already lost her mind. It had been a week since Sage had left and she had given up hope that he was returning. Inside she was an emotional mess, but she had managed to keep herself together for the most part.
At night was the worst. After she locked herself in the house and made sure everything was secure she would have to listen to the shrill shrieks of the demons outside and imagine how Sage looked now. The picture haunted her thoughts, and now her dreams.
Roxy began to think about new names for the dog. She realized that it shouldn't be that hard of a decision, but she didn't want to have to retrain the dog with a new name. Her mind wandered to the dog’s reaction earlier, and she realized that she had probably said something close to his real name. Then it hit her.
"Ben." She called and the dog again picked its head up from where had laid it on her leg. "So, I was close." She said, referring to when she said the word then. "So it's settled then. Your name is Ben."
Before.
For the next few weeks they tried to avert from their normal schedule, but at least twice a week Roxy made Sage go to the playground. It was the only place that she truly felt happy. She could feel free in a world where she was trapped. Sage didn't really understand how Roxy could just forget about all that was going on around them. She would swing as high as she could and close her eyes. Sage would feel the wind as she swung her legs out and glided past him as he sat on the swing beside her and wonder how she could be so carefree. He was always glancing around them. Waiting for someone to sneak up from behind and kill them both or steal Roxy's gun from where it lay on the ground.
One day he decided to talk to Roxy about how they should be more careful when they were at the playground, particularly how she shouldn't leave her gun on the ground.
"Why does it matter? It would take me less than three seconds to grab it, and you have yours. It's not like anyone is around.
No one will steal it." She said with a matter-of-fact tone when he brought it up on their way home.
"But what happens if someone does? What if someone comes to town and tries to hurt us." Sage argued.
"The chances of that are a million to one."
"The chances of a zombie apocalypse were a million to one." Sage stopped walking and Roxy turned to face him a few feet ahead.
"Fine, Sage, you're right. I'll keep the gun on me from now on." Sage could tell that he had made her upset by the way her voice sounded, and was sure he made her angry by the way she folded her arms against her chest.
"What did I do now?"
"Nothing." She turned and started to walk.
"You're lying." He followed her.
"And you're being over cautious."
"I just want us to be safe."
Roxy stopped and took a step away from him. "Why does it even matter anymore, Sage? We've done everything we can to be safe and frankly I'm sick of it. If we are going to die, then we are going to die. There isn't anything we can do to stop it. I'd much rather spend the rest of my life having fun than die being over cautious. A few months ago you felt the same way."
"A few months ago I was just a teenager living with my parents, but things changed Roxy. I watched my parents kill each other. I looked into the black eyes of your family and I've been running ever since. We have been running, and we are going to have to run for the rest of our lives."
"You're wrong Sage. We don't have to run anymore. We've figured it out. We have food, we have a secure home. We have a system. We are safe." By now Roxy's voice was close to a yell and Sage's matched hers.
"We don't have it figured out yet. If we had it figured out we wouldn't have to burn the bodies every morning. We wouldn't have to worry about not making it home before sun set. If we had everything figured out we wouldn't have to carry around guns. "
"I'm not arguing about this." Roxy turned and began walking again. This time Sage stayed where he stood.
"If you're so unhappy with what we have why don't you just leave, Roxy?" Sage kept his voice low, but she still heard him.
Roxy turned and stared at him, speechless. When she didn't say anything Sage took a step towards her.
"Roxy I didn't mean it--"
"Stop, Sage. Stay away from me. I'll leave in the morning." Her eyes were beginning to water, but she held the tears back. Sage didn't know what to do, so when she turned and began to run he stood there and watched.
Eventually he realized that the sun was going to set soon, so he began to jog back to the house. When he closed the door he could see the first of them slowly making its way down the street.
"Roxy?" He called after secured the door, but of course she didn't answer. For a moment, Sage didn't think she made it home, but then he noticed that the door to her room was shut. He walked over to it and knocked. When she didn't say anything he tried to open the door but it was locked.
"At least let me know you're here and not out there getting torn apart." He said after knocking once more.
"Go away." Was her only reply.
Sage stood outside the door and apologized repetitively for several more minutes, but he couldn't get any more response from her. Eventually he gave up and went to the couch to read, but wasn't able to stay there long. The shrieks coming from outside the door were making his skin crawl, and so he couldn't focus on the book. After giving up on trying to focus on reading, he went back to Roxy's door.
"Are you going to eat?" He asked, but again there was no response. Feeling guilty, Sage went to the kitchen and made two cans of chicken noodle soup. He carried Roxy's bowl to her door and set it on the floor. "You don't have to talk to me, but at least you can eat." He didn't even wait for a response this time; instead he walked to the living room and solemnly ate his portion of the soup, while listening for the sound of Roxy's door opening.
Even after an hour the door hadn't opened, and the soup was still where he had left it. Sage stood outside of the door, contemplating whether or not he should pick up the bowl, when he heard a sound from the other side of the door. At first he thought she was about to say something, but then he realized that she probably didn't know that he was there. Carefully, he pressed his ear up to the door and listened.
It took him a minute to realize that she was crying. With his heart aching, he knocked on the door again. He wasn't expecting a reply and was startled when he heard he voice through the door.
"What do you want?" Her voice was harsh; a mixture of anger and heartbreak.
"To apologize." Sage's voice broke as he spoke.
"I don't accept it."
"Roxy, I didn't mean for it to sound like that. I was just upset that you're not taking out safety seriously." Sage didn't even hear her footsteps before she opened the door.
"Everything we do is serious. Everything," She exclaimed. "And I'm sick of it. I'm sick of being stuck here in this dungeon and listening as they rip each other apart outside our door. I'm sick of burning the bodies every day. I'm sick of eating soup and terrible cooked venison. I want to go back to how things used to be, Sage. We are eighteen; we shouldn't be living like this." By the time Roxy finished ranting tears were running down her cheeks. Sage was speechless. He knew that he should say something, but the words wouldn't come. Instead, he tried to embrace her.
When Roxy realized what he was doing she took a step back, but the expression on Sage's face as he let his arms fall back to his sides made her second guess herself. Before she had time to reach towards him Sage spoke.
"I didn't mean what I said. We both know we would be a mess without each other. I can't have you leave. Can you please forgive me?" Sage's eyes had begun to water, but the tears didn't fall until Roxy wrapped her arms around him.
March 02, 2017.
It was almost two months since Sage had left, and Roxy had completely given up hope on ever seeing him again. Unless, of course, his eyes were black and he was trying to destroy her. She was trying her best to move on, but her stomach had continued to bulge, and it was a constant reminder of what she had lost.
Ben was helping her cope though. After both of their injuries had subsided they made it a routine to go for a walk, but only after the bodies were smoldering in the already dead grass. Sometimes he would want to play catch with a branch he found some place. Some days they would go to the playground, but most of the time Roxy would just walk. Together they had found another school, and even another grocery store that still had some canned goods. Roxy had taken a grocery cart and filled it with whatever was left. She had even found a few boxes of dog treats that she took home for Ben.
Since Sage had taken the better pistol her main goal was to find a replacement, but that wasn't easy. She checked abandoned houses and stores but she couldn't find any weapons at all, which wasn't truly surprising. Supplies were getting harder and harder to find, and Roxy knew she had to go to a different town if she wanted to restock. So the day before she had taken one of their larger vehicles, a Ford F150, out of the garage a few houses down and took it to every gas station in town to try to fill it up. Eventually the fuel gauge on the truck read full, but Roxy knew that she’d have to pick up as much gas as possible on her travels.
She skipped burning the bodies that morning. Instead, she filled the bed of the truck with fuel cans and together she and Ben set off for Seattle.
The trip was less than twenty miles, but it still took Roxy almost forty-five minutes because she was trying to stay off of all the main roads, just in case. The debris that was scattered across the roads was unbelievable. Vehicles were scattered across the roadways, some with the doors still open. There were even a few times that Roxy had to get out and move a car out of the center of the roadway. Most of the vehicles still had keys in the ignition, so it made for easy work.
Her hands had begun to sweat as she drove. She had always hated to go to Seattle. The large skyscrapers made her feel small and vulnerable. Sage and her had run into some of the citizen who still lived there, both dead and alive, and it scared her to be alone, but there were some good things about Seattle. Most importantly there were still a lot of supplies left, and there were some people who would be willing to trade for goods, but only if she found the right people.
Part of Roxy wanted to just stay with a group in Seattle, but she couldn't find it in herself to leave her home. She had tried to not think about it though. She figured she would face that decision when it came.
Roxy sped around the city looking for any shops that looked promising, but there weren't many. At noon the only supplies she had found were a couple dozen cans of soup and ten packets of ramen noodles that were hidden in the back of an old gas station, which unfortunately, had no gas. She didn't give up though, and she drove around the city for another two hours stopping at various places she thought there would be supplies.
As she was driving she saw a group of people walking down the sidewalk. In their hands were bags, obviously filled with some kind of useful supplies, and large weapons hung off of straps on their soldiers. At first Roxy thought that there were only four of them, but after she stopped the truck and slowly walked towards them with her hands clearly insight she noticed two small children hiding behind the only women in the group.
"Friend or foe?" The largest of the men said with his hand protectively over his weapon, when Roxy stopped about 15 yards away. He was certainly the eldest of them, but by the look of his muscles he was also the strongest. His hair was salt-and-pepper colored and he wore a dark pair of blue jeans and an unbuttoned dress shirt that was stained a permanent dirt color. Under his shirt Roxy could see his chest was covered with deep purple scars as was his arms.
"Friend." Roxy replied, her heart racing. It had been a choice to get out of the vehicle, but she figured that these guys weren't alone and if she didn't stop one of them would try to stop her later.
"What do you want?" The man that spoke was built similarly to the first but his hair was a deep brown and hung past his ears. Instead of a dirty dress shirt he wore a faded black muscle shirt.
"I..." Her thoughts left her and her hands began to tremble slightly. “I just need some...” Before she could finish the women interrupted her.
"There's no need to be afraid, sweetheart. We won't hurt you." The woman was older. Roxy assumed that she was in her mid-forties. Her hair was blonde and she had a mother-like quality about her. She made Roxy feel comfortable but her peers had the opposite effect on her.
"Kate, she could kill us." The brunette man said in a rough voice.
"It's four against one. She was the one who came to us. Obviously she isn't stupid, that's clear just because she is alive. She wants help, Rick. Look at her stomach. She's pregnant." The women's voice was comforting and she gave Roxy a reassuring smile.
“My name is Roxy Coleman, and all I want is supplies. I'd be willing to trade. I brought some clothes. “Roxy blurted out.
"Are you alone?" The women, Kate, asked she stepped towards her.
"Yes." Roxy replied, tentatively.
"How far along are you?" Kate kept walking and Roxy didn't know whether to turn and run away from her or towards her.
"A little over four months."
"Is he gone?" By now, Kate was within an arms reach and Roxy took a step back.
"No, he's not. He's on the other side of town. He knows where I'm at and we have a rendezvous point just outside of the city. “Roxy didn't know why she lied, but she didn't feel like she could tell the truth. While the women made her feel somewhat comfortable, the men made her feel the complete opposite.
"Well where are you guys living?" The women asked her as she took a step away, obviously aware that Roxy didn't like her closeness.
Roxy didn't reply. She couldn't think of a place fast enough and didn't want to give up the true location of her home.
"She isn't going to tell us, Kate." The man named Rick said. "She is too smart for that."
There was a long pause and for a moment Roxy thought about running. Just when she went to take her first step Rick spoke.
"Josh, take Keith and the children and go get some supplies. Get anything we can spare. “The two other men looked at her questioningly before taking the two small children by the hands and walking away. Before they got too far Rick spoke again. 'Miss, can we take a look at what you've got?"
"Of course. They're in the truck. “Roxy cautiously turned towards the car. She didn't hear Rick approaching until he spoke.
"Need some help?" His voice startled Roxy but she agreed to let him help with some of the boxes.
In the end Josh and Keith came back with two boxes of non-perishable goods, and one of them had a bag full of chips. Roxy's mouth almost started to water when she saw the different variety of soups and when Rick showed her a box of crackers she almost cried. They only took one box of clothes, and it was mostly jeans. Roxy knew that the trade wasn't fair, and so she thanked them for their generosity several times as they helped her load the boxes into the truck.
As the men carried the boxes for her, Kate was admiring Ben. "He's a beautiful dog. Have you had him the entire time?" She threw a stick that she had found laying on the road and the dog chased after it.
"No. He showed up a few weeks ago." When Ben returned he was panting heavily and his pink tongue was hanging from the left side of his mouth.
"You're lucky. To have someone to be with you. “Roxy didn't know if she met the dog or the pretend person she had waiting for her.
"You have company too." She replied, referring to Keith, Rick, Josh, and the two children. Roxy wasn't sure if there were more than the six she had encountered with, but she didn't feel comfortable asking.
"Sometimes there are too many of us, and that can make for bad company." Kate's voice trailed off as the men approached, but she had answered Roxy's unanswered question.
"Thank you so much," She said as she shook their all of their hands. "I really appreciate it." As her hand slipped into Josh's she was surprised to feel a piece of paper against his palm. Josh seemed to be similar in age to her, but he seemed really shy. He hadn't said any thing to her or the others since they first met, and so when she felt the paper in her hand she was surprised.
She hid it well though; she closed her hand and then slid the paper into her back pocket as she climbed into the car. She thanked them one more time before she drove away.
She didn't go far though. After a block she stopped the car and pulled the paper from her pocket
1959 Northeast Pacific Street... We are here to help. The writing was faint and looked as if it had been written in a hurry. Roxy parked the car and began to think.
If she went there she would be safe, but it would mean giving up all hope of seeing Sage again. Kate had said that there were many people there, and that would mean more of a struggle for food, but none of them seemed to be starving. She could always bring her own food and just hide it, in case they ran out she could take her supply and leave, but that was dangerous too.
Roxy had her head in her hands when Ben started barking from the passenger seat. At first she thought he was barking at her, but then she realized that the bark was more ferocious than usual. Roxy slowly turned her hand and found herself staring at the end of a small pistol
"Get out, and shut that dog up." The man behind the gun said in a rough voice.
"Look, we can work something out." Roxy said as calmly as she could.
"Yea, we can. You can get out of the car and take you're stupid dog with you." Roxy was surprised to see that the man was young. He was wearing a sweater, and a pair of ripped khaki shorts that Roxy assumed he had since the start. The smell of him said that he hadn't washed in a while either.
"There has to be another way. Take my supplies, leave me the car. “She felt her offer was reasonable, but obviously he didn't. She heard him pull the hammer back on the gun. "Okay. I'll get out. “Roxy opened the door of the truck and slowly exited it, grabbing her back pack that held her pistol on the way.”Come on, Ben." She called after she had taken a few steps away.
The dog followed her out of the car and Roxy commanded that he sit beside her. "Sir, please don't take the truck. My home is too far to make on foot before dark. Take all my supplies, but please leave me the truck." Roxy was almost begging now and tears began to form in her eyes as she spoke.
"Sorry sweetheart, but I need to save my life too." To Roxy his words meant nothing. “Is there anything useful in the backpack?" He asked but Roxy didn't hear him.
Instead she was focusing on Kate and Keith who had just turned a corner and emerged on the street. They were walking away from them, oblivious to her situation but she knew that if she was able to capture their attention they would come to her aid.
"Sweetheart, are you listening?" The man had taken two steps towards her and raised his voice. Roxy knew that she couldn't outrun him. He was about six inches taller than her and her body hadn't been the same since the start of the pregnancy.
"There's nothing in the bag except for a couple boxes of granola bars." Her voice sounded as if it was coming from a different person. Her entire focus was on the two figures that were slowly beginning to shrink away from her.
"Hand them over, you can keep the bag and one box. I can't leave you here with any food." It wasn't until then that the man lowered the gun.
Roxy set the bag on the ground and bent down to unzip it. It was then that the idea came to her and she whispered "Speak." As loudly as she dared towards Ben. Roxy's heart sunk when no noise came from the dog, but as she slowly drew out the pistol from her bag she repeated the word and the dog did as she asked.
The man started to walk towards her, obviously aware that something was amiss, but Roxy could see the two figures down the street pause. For a moment it seemed as if they were arguing, and then they were running towards her, with Kate in the lead.
"I asked you to shut that dog up!" The man's hand seemed to appear out of no where and when it made contact with Roxy's cheek she felt as if she was going to pass out.
"Help me!" She screamed and was rewarded with what felt like a kick to her stomach, and another blow to the head. It was then that she blacked out.
Before.
Sage was the one who thought it was a good idea to make other safe houses around the area, but it was Roxy who suggested Abbotsford. Crossing the Canadian border was no longer a problem, because no one was there to guard it. The city was close enough to Vancouver that they could go there for supplies too.
Instead of picking a house to reinforce they decided to just try an apartment. With the narrow staircases and the high elevation it would be harder for great numbers of them to make it up the stairs and therefore easier to reinforce. There had to be a gas stove but they had given up hope of finding someplace with running water. The apartment complex they chose had its own parking garage under the building. It wasn't as convenient as several different garages spread across the neighbor hood but Sage believed that it would work just as well.
They both drove separate trucks to Abbotsford because all the supplies plus the food they would need wouldn't fit into one truck bed. When they got there they realized that they may have not thought about their plan enough. Most of the supplies were too large or heavy to carry by themselves, and without electric they would have to carry it all up the stairs. They spent two hours carrying everything up to the apartment they had chosen on the third floor. By then it was almost two. Sage suggested just fortify the entrance way and working through the night, and Roxy couldn't argue. They had just finished barricading the door when they heard the first of them. Roxy could see them starting to wander the street as she started to cover the windows. They didn't think that they could climb the walls and get in through the windows but they didn't want to chance it. There were only four windows throughout the apartment, one in each bedroom and two in the living area, and within an hour they were all covered with several layers of wood and the cement.
"We are getting good at this." Roxy joked as Sage walked out from one bedroom after completing the last window. "We should start a business."
"Oh, that's a brilliant idea. We can name it S&R's home improvement and our slogan could be, 'Get to us before they get to you!' ". Sage was full of energy, but Roxy was exhausted from all the work they had done.
"I can even find some paint" She yawned "and make us an advertisement somewhere in Seattle."
"Brilliant. None of them will want to mess with S&R's sturdy handiwork." It was just then that the first one slammed into the layers of wood that protected the door. The door frame didn't even move, but that didn't surprise them. They had stacked the wood against the door in three layers, just like they had at their home in Edmonds. Beneath those three layers was a thick sheet of steel that they had secured to the frame. There was no way they would get into the house.
"At least they're quieter here." Roxy said after a few minutes of listening to their snarls.
"There's less than usual. They all can't get up the stairs, and that's not necessarily a good thing. If they can't get up the stairway that means they're going to be angry. Aggression means that more will die and that means we will have to burn more in the morning. "
"True.” She paused. "Speaking of morning I'm going to find a place in the kitchen for the food so we can leave earlier." She stood up and disappeared around the corner.
Sage watched her go and waited a minute until he got up to follow her. When he walked into the kitchen she was sitting on the floor surrounded by a sea of cans. He stood there for a moment before she noticed him. When she did she stopped and began to pull her hair up off of her neck.
"Coming to help?" She asked as she pulled the black hair-tie off her wrist and worked into her hair. Even tied up her hair hung to the center of her back. Sage liked it, but it made her look entirely different than she had before they left her home in Virginia.
It didn't take them long to get all of food put away. They hadn't brought much, just enough to survive for about a week if need be, but Roxy had to have everything in order. They had to have everything organized by brand and then by type. Sage didn't understand why they couldn't just throw everything in the cupboard, but he knew better than to argue with her.
Neither of them slept very well that night. As the hours grew later it seemed as if the zombies outside grew more aggravated. The dying ones shrieked and growled almost obnoxiously throughout the night, and the surviving ones seemed to be bouncing off the walls causing an uneven rhythm accented with the sound of bones breaking.
Roxy had managed to drift off to sleep at some point and she woke to the sound of Sage washing off. When she opened her eyes she saw that he had already went outside to clean up the mess of bodies.
"How many were there?" Roxy groggily asked.
"Only about 15 were dead. One of them was still alive, but just barely. “Sage replied as he was putting a clean shirt on.
"Are you burning them?"
"Yea. I threw the bodies out one of the windows on the lower floor. The smell is terrible outside but I guess in here it's barely noticeable."
"I can't even smell it."
"Lucky," Sage ran his fingers through his wet hair. “it seems to be permanently stuck in my nose."
Roxy grabbed two cans out of the cupboard and poured them into a pot on the stove. Within minutes the entire apartment smelled of vegetable beef soup. Sage, who was relaxing on the couch, yelled from the living room. "It smells delicious, and I'm starving."
"I would've helped you this morning.' Roxy yelled back. "You should've woken me, and then you wouldn't be so hungry and tired."
"You looked too peaceful to wake up."
"No one could be peacefully sleeping with the noise coming from outside last night." Roxy poured the contents of the pot into two bowls and walked them into the living room
"That was terrible. “Sage agreed as he sat up and carefully took one bowl from Roxy. He had three spoonfuls before Roxy even sat down.
"We can leave after we eat." Roxy said as she stirred her soup.
Sage's only reply was a nod. He finished his food way before Roxy did, and so Roxy asked him to take their belongings back to the vehicles. By the time he returned Roxy had cleaned the dishes with a bottle of water and was sliding her feet into her sneakers.
"We're ready." She said, and followed Sage down the flights of stairs to the parking garage.
They each drove separately again. Sage took the lead and Roxy followed him absentmindedly. They were almost to the border when Roxy almost slammed into the rear-end of Sage's truck, which had stopped unexpectedly. Roxy rolled down her window and leaned her head out of it. Just as she did she saw Sage open the car door and walk out with his hands held above his head. She didn't have to see any more to know that they were surrounded.
March 4, 2016.
She was running again. She was so sick of running, and so sick of always being tired. They were chasing her again but this time she was thinking about just giving up and letting them tear her apart. It would only hurt for a minute. They didn't understand the concept of torture, all they understood was hunger, anger, and aggression.
Everything she had was lost. Everyone she loved was gone. Sage, Mom, Jessie, Dad, everyone. Either dead or turned into some demon monster that had no feelings.
Maybe she wouldn't die though. There was always a chance that she could turn into one of them. She didn't understand how it worked. Sage and her had never figured it out, but she didn't want to be one of them. That was the only thing that kept her running.
There was no destination. She no longer had a home. Her first home was across the country and she didn't know how to get to the house in Edmonds or the apartment in Abbotsford. Everything was dark, except for one faint, yellow light that she was running towards.
She would never make it though. No matter how fast she ran they were faster and she could hear them catching up already. A thousand feet drumming against the cement.
But she kept running, until the first one grabbed her ankle and she fell forward to the ground. She expected to die then, but she didn't. She rolled over and began to kick at the mangled body clutching her, but it was no use. There were more now. Thousands of them were surrounding her. Their black eyes staring at her waiting to take a bite of her flesh.
One of them screamed. It was so loud and so ear-piercing that they all stopped. The hands let go of her and its black eyes locked on something behind her head. She turned, and was staring directly at the corpse of her best friend. She had gotten used to seeing him as a monster and now the sight didn't intimidate her as much as it used to.
He leaned forward until his face was just inches from her own. Her eyes were locked on the black circles that had replaced the blue that she had become so attached to.
"Do it." She whispered.
When he didn't make a move Roxy reached her hand up to his cheek. He turned his head towards her hand and she could feel the warmth of his breath against her finger tips.
"You remember me." Her realization came as a shock, but was nothing compared to how she felt when he opened his mouth and ran his black tongue against her fingers.
"Roxy" He mumbled into her hand. "Roxy"
"Roxy." The voice wasn't Sage's, but it was one that she recognized.
"Kate." She replied as she felt something rough and wet against her fingertips. She jerked away immediately, and expected to see his black pits staring back at her. Instead she saw Kate with a apologetic yet surprised look on her face. Roxy saw the wet wash cloth in her hands and realized that Kate was washing her skin.
"Easy." Kate said. "You're bruised up pretty badly."
Tears started to form in her eyes as she reached down for her stomach. Part of her expected her stomach to be flat again, and she was surprised when she felt the small bump.
"It's alive. Our doctors had to double check and they gave you some medication to help, but they kept her alive." Kate put her hand beside Roxy's and gave a small pat. "You've got three broken ribs. This explains why it hurts to sit up so badly.”
"Doctors? You have doctors here?" It wasn't until then that Roxy noticed the dim lights shinning above her. "Electric too?"
"We are very well off here. There are over a hundred of us here and there are four doctors and six nurses. We have some really smart people here, which explains the electric."
"Wait. “Roxy grabbed Kate's hand.”You said she."
"What?" Kate sat down a chair beside Roxy's bed that she hadn't noticed before.
"You said she when you were talking about the baby. You can't know what gender it is." Roxy rubbed her stomach again.
"Actually we can. We did an ultra sound. Sorry if you wanted it to be a surprise. I didn't know."
"No, it's fine. “Tears started to fall down Roxy's cheeks again.”I'm having a baby girl." She had goose bumps forming on her arms and her heart began to ache for Sage.
"We went to look for the father. We had people out for two days and we asked everyone we saw, but no one could find him." Kate said as if she could read Roxy's mind.
"He's dead." Roxy confessed. "Well, I think he's dead. He left one day and never came home."
The color in Kate's cheeks drained from her face instantly. "Roxy, I'm so sorry. I know how it feels to-"
"We all know how it feels to lose someone. Everyone has lost everything." Roxy interrupted. She didn't know if she could deal with so many emotions at once and just wanted to change subject.
"Well, there are other communities nearby. We keep contact with most of them. I'll see if anyone has seen him. Can you describe him for me?"
"His name is Sage. He is tall, black hair, blue eyes, and skinny, but everyone is skinny. “Roxy tried to sit up again and winced in pain.”Is there anything for the pain?" She asked as she relaxed back against the white sheets.
"Yea, I'll go get Linda, she will want to talk to you anyways. I'll tell some people about Sage too." She said as she walked out of the room.
"He's dead." Roxy whispered to herself.
It didn't take long for Linda to enter the room, but while Roxy waited she noticed that she was actually in a hospital room. She even had a thin white hospital gown on, but it wasn't the gown or the room that held her attention. She couldn't help but to stare at the dim lights above her. It had been almost a year since she had been in a room lighted by anything except a flashlight, and the sight was mesmerizing for her. It wasn't until she noticed Linda standing in the corner of the room that she focused on something else.
Linda was a small, middle aged woman with long dark brown hair that was tied up in a bun on the back of her head. On her nose was a pair of small, square glasses that looked a little lopsided. Everything about her reminded Roxy of a doctor except for her clothes. She was wearing a pair of dark grey sweatpants that were too big for her and a navy blue shirt that made her blue eyes look even brighter.
"Roxy, it's good to see you awake." She said as she sat down a glass of water on the table, and then sat in the chair beside the bed. "I'm Linda Connors, and I've been taking care of you for the past two days. "
"Are you sure it's a girl?" Roxy blurted out, unable to be patient.
"Yes I'm sure it's a girl," Linda laughed. "and we will talk about the baby in a minute. First off, let’s get you comfortable." She held out her hand and in her palm were three small pills, which Roxy eyed conspicuously.
"They're just Advil. They’re to help with the pain." She handed Roxy the glass and the pills and she swallowed them eagerly.
"There," Kate said. "You should feel a bit better soon."
"Thank you." Roxy replied.
"The ribs are going to hurt for a while. I'm sure Kate told you that he broke some of them. It was good he kicked you in the rib cage and not the stomach though." She put her hand on Roxy's stomach. "She is healthy, actually very healthy."
Roxy smiled. "Thank you so much, Doctor."
"Call me Linda." She replied. "I have some other people I have to check on. If the pain gets too difficult just let someone know. Kate will probably be here soon after I leave. She hasn't left your side since you got here. "
"Really?" That surprised Roxy; she would have thought the Kate would have had better things to do than sit beside a stranger's bed.
"Really." Linda confirmed. "She has a thing for children. She lost her own when all of this started. Since then she has been a mother to all of the children here. It doesn't surprise me that she wanted to make sure you and the child were fine."
"Kate has a kind heart."
"She is one of a kind. If you need anything let her know." Linda squeezed Roxy's hand before she opened the white door and walked out of the room.
Roxy was almost asleep again the door opened again. She was expecting Kate, and was surprised when she saw Josh.
"Did I wake you?" He asked softly. His short, light hair almost blended in with the white light and the white walls. His eyes were a deep green, and something about them made Roxy feel instantly safe.
"No, I was up. Linda just left a few minutes ago, and the bed isn't that comfortable." Roxy tried to push herself back into a sitting position but the pain was just too much.
"Better get used to it. None of the beds here are comfortable." Josh laughed and Roxy couldn't help but to smile.
"Thank you for the directions.” She said. "I probably would have come regardless of this." She gestured to her rib cage.
"We shouldn't have left you. We all knew you were lying about meeting up with someone. Rick should've talked you into coming with us." He said in the chair where Linda and Kate were before.
"Ben and I would have been fine. We've been alone for about two months now." It wasn't until she said his name that she remembered Ben. She was just about to ask Josh where he was when he spoke.
"Ben is fine. He's getting along very well with everyone, especially the children. He spent the evening trying to get in here, but we were all so afraid he would have jumped on the bed."
"Oh. Thank God." She breathed a sigh of relief. Everything was okay. She was having a baby girl and her dog was fine. "What exactly happened?"
"Well how much do you remember?"
"Until he knocked me out."
"Oh, well you didn't notice Keith and me behind you. We actually reached him just as he kicked you, but we weren't fast enough. We couldn't really see what was going on. At first we thought you had met up with the guy you were talking about, but we came running as soon as we figured out what was going on. Keith tried to take him down, with the help of Ben, while I tried to get you to wake up. They fought for a while, but as soon as Rick and Kate reached us everything calmed down. "
"Did you. . . “Roxy couldn't make herself ask.
"Kill him? No, but he probably is dead by now. We had to tie his hands, but we left him a knife nearby so he could get away when he came to. We couldn't risk him following us."
"Why not? It was just one person."
"In the city, where there is one, there are dozens. "
Roxy jumped a little when Kate opened the door. The pain from the movement almost made Roxy cry but she held herself together.
Kate obviously noticed the pain and went straight for a cabinet that Roxy hadn't noticed before. She withdrew a bottle and poured out to red pills into her hand.
"Linda just gave me some." Roxy said as Kate held out her hand.
"You can have more. You're in pain, and we have plenty."
Roxy's ribs were aching, so she didn't argue before she washed down the two pills with some water. "Thank you."
"You're welcome. “She replied as she sat on the edge of her bed.”Now, I know you're in a lot of pain, but Linda said that if you're up for it you should try to take a walk. Josh and I would help you get up, and walk you to the cafeteria so you can get some food. "
The thought of standing up seemed impossible to Roxy, but she didn't want to seem weaker than she already did.”Okay, let’s get me up then."
Getting her out of bed was hell. The pain made her move slowly, but she the slower she went the longer it would hurt. Eventually the got her into a sitting position, but she asked them to wait so she could catch her breath.
"I think I just want to stand up quickly. "
"I think that would be best." Kate voiced. "If you pass out from the pain at least Josh and I can catch you."
Roxy didn't want to think about passing out. "Okay, I'm as ready as I'm ever going to be." She grabbed Kate's hands as Josh carefully steady her by her hips.
"Ready?" Kate asked.
"Yes." Her ribs burned as Josh picked her up into a standing position. Luckily, she didn't pass out, but Kate's hands were bright red from the pressure she had applied.
"Walking is going to hurt," Josh said. "but if you don't walk the recovery is going to take longer. I'll keep a hand on your hip if want me to help steady you."
"Yes, please." Roxy said breathlessly.
Josh was right. The pain was very severe, especially during the first few steps, but after she had a steady pace the stabbing pain reduced to an obnoxious throbbing.
As they walked, Kate and Josh told her what to expect. She could hardly believe that there were over two hundred people living in this building. As they walked down the maze of hallways they didn't see anyone.
"It's lunch time," Josh explained. "and the people who aren't eating right now are out looking for more supplies. It gets more crowded during the evening. "
"We have people here from every where." Kate continued "Of course there are more of us that are actually from Washington, but we have a few people from Nevada and Texas, a bunch of people from California, and even a couple from New York."
"I'm from just outside of Richmond."
"In Virginia?" Josh asked. "What brought you way out here?"
"Sage and I were traveling all over when it all started. We didn't know where to go. Finally we just decided to stop. There was no use running anymore."
"Understandable. When it started a lot of people tried to run."
The rounded another corner and Roxy's pain tripled when she saw the flight of stairs.
"We won’t make you walk down them. Josh will carry you."
"How many stairs are there?" Roxy asked as Josh tried to carefully pick her up.
"Sorry." His apology was sincere, but the pain still made her cry out. "There are two flights, but I'll go down them as smoothly as I can.”
By the bottom of the stairs Roxy had drenched his shoulder with tears. Her thoughts of being strong had dissipated when the pain began, but she was able to keep herself from crying out again.
"We are at the bottom." He informed her. "I can keep carrying you. There are a few empty rooms down here if you want to lie down for a few minutes."
Roxy nodded her head and she felt Josh start moving again.
"Josh," Kate called. "I'm going to go into the lunch room and get her a plate."
"Okay." Josh called back.
She didn't feel Josh open the door to the room, because he did it so smoothly. She did, however, feel as he started to lower her onto a bed. Thankfully, he did it quickly, and the pain was subsiding quickly.
"I'm sorry, for crying all over you." She could see the wet mark her tears had left on his shirt.
"Don't be sorry. I know how it feels to have bruised ribs, and I couldn't imagine how badly it hurts to have broken ones."
"Are you sure it was a good idea to have me moving?" She closed her eyes as she talked.
"Yea. The bones have all been set. Believe it or not we still have the technology that we did before; actually we have advanced in some things. It's like the Doctors and Scientists decided to actually start doing something." Josh smiled and Roxy noticed the dimple on his right cheek for the first time.
"Do you guys have contact with other people?"
"Just people in the area," Josh replied. "There are some scientists from California who are locked up in the lab and doing research all the time. Every once in a while we send someone there to see what they've developed."
"Wow." Roxy was astonished. "How can you guys be living like nothing happened?"
"We aren't. If we were living like nothing happened we wouldn't have to carry these," He gestured to the holster on his hip that held a pistol Roxy hadn't noticed before. "Or stay inside after the sun goes down, or build barriers to keep them out. "
"But you're living better than I was, and you're living better than everyone else I've ever encountered." Roxy couldn't help but to think of the home she had left behind. The windows were covered with wood that was stained permanently with a thick layer of blood, and the grass in front of the house was destroyed from the constant burning of the creatures that tried to kill them every night. Compared to her, they were all living like royalty.
"We take in everyone we can. It's not like we turn people away from us."
"Oh, I wasn't making that point. I'm just thinking that if you can live like this why can't everyone else?"
"A lot of people don't want to, Roxy. We have had people die when they tried to convince other to join us. "
Roxy didn't know how to reply, but luckily Kate opened the door with a tray in her hands.
"Beef and potatoes with a side of corn." Kate said as she sat the tray across Roxy's lap.
"Where did you get all this?" Roxy already had the first spoonful of potatoes at her lips.
"We actually have a farm." Kate explained. "It's about thirty miles outside of the city, but it's where we grow the potatoes and corn. The meat is actual cow too, but we have to keep them some place else or else they're slaughtered by the morning."
"The farm was my Uncle Tim's. During my childhood I would go there for the summer and help him out. One day I came home and my parents were gone, so I stayed there alone for a few days before deciding to drive to his farm. Rick found me that day after I ran my car into a fire hydrant," Roxy had to suppress a laugh and Josh shot her a glare before he continued. "The next day I explained how we needed to go check on Tim, and Rick was more than happy to take me. When we got there the house was surrounded with bodies, and we thought for sure that Tim's was among them. We found him in the upper story of his barn, with his entire armory and ammo. It was a rather gruesome but entertaining sight. It took both of us to get him to let go of the gun, but eventually he came here with us. He saved us with that farm, when I got here we were eating stale bread and crackers."
"I'll have to meet him, because this meal is delicious." She had already finished half of the plate.
"You will." Kate replied. You'll have to meet everyone else too."
After Roxy finished her meal she was exhausted. So when Kate asked her if she wanted to go for another walk she quickly declined. "The trip down the steps exhausted me." She explained. "I think I just want to sleep."
Kate agreed that sleep was probably better than trying to walk some more, and that someone would come in to check on her periodically. Roxy smiled and thanked both of them for their hospitality, but he was asleep before Josh closed the door.
Before.
"Get out of the vehicle." Roxy didn't have to look to know that there was a barrel being pointed at her temple. The door opened and she slid out of the seat and onto the pavement with her fingers entwined behind her head. She wasn't able to turn around as rough hands grabbed at the holster around her waist and forced her against the vehicle. The hands left her waist and moved to secure her against the truck, but she knew within seconds her weapon was gone.
"We don't want any trouble." Roxy spoke quietly. “We just are trying to get home. Take our supplies. There are more in Sage's truck. Please, just leave us one vehicle and we will be out of your way and never come back." She could see that Sage was having slightly worse luck than her. He wasn't pinned against the truck, but there was a gun still pointed at his temple.
"Roxy?" At first she thought it was Sage who had spoken, but the sound came from the person who had he up against the truck.
"Yes?" Roxy was grateful that her attacker had loosened his grip on her, but she was still uncomfortable leaning up against the sun-cooked side of the black truck.
"Dad, I know her." The voice seemed familiar, but she couldn't figure out his name without looking at his face.
"Tony!" His voice was full of hope, but still Roxy didn't know who her attacker was.
"I don't care if you knew them," The man who spoke had a deep voice, and Roxy figured he must be Mike. "We don't know anyone anymore. We can't trust anyone."
"They went to school with me, Dad. We can't hurt them" Suddenly Roxy realized who the man behind her was. Tony Johnson had been in several classes with Roxy, but they weren't really friends. Roxy suddenly remembered that Tony had lived only with his mother. His father had an affair and moved to Canada with some women half of his age. Roxy remembered hearing that Tony's mother had passed away after having the IGD and he had to move with his father after the funeral.
Roxy attended the funeral with her parents, because Roxy's mother had been close friends with Mrs. Johnson in high school. She remembered giving Tony a hug and shaking his father's hand. Suddenly her hopes of getting out of there alive sky rocketed.
"Mr. Johnson I was at your former wife's funeral." Roxy tried to speak loudly, but with her face still being held against the warm vehicle it was difficult.
"I don't care. That was in another life. We need supplies and you're going to give them to us." Mr. Johnson's voice was rough and uncaring. "Matt make sure she doesn't move."
Roxy could feel the difference as Tony let go of her and Matt took his place, because the pressure was multiplied by a thousand times. She had lost circulation in her fingers by the time they had unloaded her vehicle.
"That's it?" Tony's father's voice was full of disbelief. "There isn't hardly anything here!" Roxy couldn't see him walking up behind her so she couldn't prepare herself for the slap across her cheek. "Where is the rest?" He screamed at her.
"There isn't anymore." The taste of blood was filling her mouth. "This is all we have." She looked up at the tall man that stood in front of her and realized that it really was not the same man which whom she had seen at the funeral. His dress shirt and tie were replaced with a ripped shirt stained by dirt and sweat, and his previously shaven face was replaced with a thick layer of grey ringlets.
"That is bull!" Roxy had time to prepare herself for the next hit. When he swung his hand at her she quickly ducked and stepped backward. His missed her cheek by a few inches, but was determined to get her on the next one. This time Roxy had no where to go. Her back was against the truck and her head slammed against the window after his fist made connection with her nose.
"Stop it!" She heard Sage yell at the same instant as Tony. Black shapes were clouding her vision but she knew that she had fallen. The taste of blood was overwhelming and she could feel the liquid as it dripped down from her throbbing nose.
Stand up. You have to stand up. Her head was spinning, but with the truck behind her she was able to find her footing. "You're not," She spit the blood out and wiped her face gently with the back of her hand. "supposed to hit a girl."
She heard Sage let out a slight sigh that sounded almost like a laugh. She saw Mr. Johnson's hand clench again and braced herself for another hit. Her eyes were closed when she heard the sound of bone crunching. Her eyes snapped open and was in awe as she saw Mr. Johnson laying on the ground motionless.
"Let them go!" Tony called out to the men who had a hold of Sage. To Roxy's surprise the men listened and Sage within seconds Sage was at her side.
"Are you alright?" He placed his left hand around her waist to stabilize her and his right was turning her face so he could get a good look at her nose.
"It's broken." She clarified when she noticed how he scrunched his face. The blood was still dripping and every few seconds she had to gently wipe it with her sleeve.
"I know, but we need to go before everyone changes their minds." He glanced at Tony. "Thank you. You've saved us. Keep her truck, maybe it will keep you're dad from coming after us."
"Thanks." Tony was staring at his unconscious father on the ground, but he looked at Roxy sincerely before apologizing about her nose.
"A bent nose isn't anything to worry about anymore." She was being led to Sage's truck as she spoke, but she was still close enough to see Tony's smirk before he looked back at his father.
By the time Sage had helped Roxy into the truck Mr. Johnson was starting to stir. The entire group was around him and none of them looked please with the way he had reacted. Roxy watched the clump of people in her mirror as they drove away and was surprised to see that no one had offered to help Tony's father.
"Why did he have to punch me?" Roxy mumbled through her sleeve as she tried to stop the blood from flowing.
"Because he is an incompetent ass." She knew that Sage was angry and would have loved to be the one to take the swing at her attacker. "By the way, you need to put that nose back into place or it'll be stuck like that."
"I know." Roxy had thought of avoiding that issue but she knew that the longer the nose set the worse the pain would be.
"Can you do it yourself or would you rather me pull over?"
"There is not way I can do it." Sage seemed to have expected that answer and had already slowed down. He turned towards her after putting the car in park.
"It's going to hurt. Just don't take the pain out on me." When he touched her nose Roxy almost cried out.
"Please do it qui- AH!" Sage hadn't even let her finish before he snapped the cartilage back into position.
"You asshole!" Her screaming started as soon as Sage tried to apologize.
"You would've flinched if I waited." Roxy couldn't argue with him because she knew he was right. She was no stranger to pain, but this was one of the most excruciating pains she had felt. Another steady stream of blood was gushing out of her nostrils so she tilted her head back and asked Sage to find her something other than her own shirt sleeve. He took off his own shirt and handed it to her. She took it gratefully and held the fabric up against her nose. The taste of her own blood was quickly making her sick and Sage had to pull over twice for her to puke before they reached their house.
Roxy had absolutely no energy when Sage parked the car in the garage. Sensing her exhaustion Sage carried her to the house and only set her down because he had to open the door. Roxy barely made it to the couch before she felt like she was going to faint.
"I think I have a concussion." She told Sage after he handed her a clean shirt.
"Wouldn't surprise me. He didn't hold back on that hit at all."
"No one can say that I can't take a hit." Roxy tried to laugh, but the motion just brought her more pain.
"That's true. I don't understand how you're the one who always get hurt."
"I guess I'm just the Damsel in distress."
"More like Quasimodo with that nose."
"When I stop being so dizzy I'll give you one to match." The exhaustion was seeping through Roxy's voice and Sage couldn't take her seriously.
"Get a clean shirt on then go to sleep. I'll make you some soup and wake you up when it's done."
It took her a few minutes to get the drenched shirt off and that was after she had to ask Sage for help. When the shirt was off she realized that she would have to go wash off. The cold water didn't bother her because she was too exhausted to care. After getting cleaned and dressed she returned to the living room to find Sage half awake on the couch.
"So much for soup." Roxy joked but only got a slight groan out of him. She slid onto the couch beside him and was asleep before the first howl of the demons outside.
March 5, 2016
The sound of glass breaking was what woke her up.
"Damn it." Josh's voice was unfamiliar to her and it wasn't until she opened her eyes that she realized where she was. "Sorry." His apology was almost a whisper, but it didn't matter how loud he was now that Roxy was awake.
"It's fine." She said groggily. "I'd help pick up the glass, but I feel like a horse stepped on my chest." The pain was subsided slightly, probably because of all the medication they had her on, but it was still painful to sit up.
"Really? I was just going to ask if you could sweep this up."
"You're hilarious." Roxy's voice was thick with sarcasm.
"I try, but honestly how are you feeling today?" He sat down on the foot of her bed and rested his hand on the white blanket that covered her calf.
"I'm okay, but I probably shouldn't try to tackle the stairs today."
"I was trying to be careful" Josh apologized. "It's not like we can use the elevator. Even with electricity they're dangerous, because the electric goes out every once in a while. No one wants to be stuck in an elevator."
"Not with you anyways."
"You're hilarious." Josh mocked.
"I know." Roxy was smile reached from ear to ear. Even with the pain she was glad to be around other humans for a while.
"So, you had company last night."
"No, I didn't. There wasn't anyone in here all night."
"Maybe that's true but it was only because Ben wouldn't let anyone in. He is who I was referring to."
"Oh. Can I see him today?" Roxy had missed the dog over the past few days. Even with the human companionship she felt somewhat lonely.
"If we don't let him see you today he will probably start to bite us all. I had to give him food this morning just to get into the door."
"Then let him in." Roxy pleaded. "He won't jump on me if I tell him not to." Roxy wasn't sure exactly how true that was but she wanted desperately to see the dog.
"Are you sure?"
"Positive." She lied.
To Roxy it seemed like Josh took forever to open the door, but as soon as he did a streak of brown bounded into the room and jumped on Roxy's bed. Luckily, he landed at her feet and moved closer to her to lick her face.
"I missed you too, buddy." She said after the dog had coated her face in a layer of slobber. "Now, lay down." The dog awkwardly walked around in a circle and pushed Roxy's legs to the opposite side of the bed before finding a comfortable spot. The jolting of the bed made Roxy's ribs ache, but she tried to hide the pain from Josh.
"He's happy." Josh said as he damped a white wash cloth and handed it to her.
"He loves me." She wiped the slobber from her face and handed the cloth back to Josh. "Thank you."
"You really shouldn't apologize so much." He said as he rinsed the cloth off and threw it in a bin that Roxy couldn't see from her position on the bed. "You make it seem like taking care of you is a chore, but it's really a lot better then working on the farm with Tim."
"I'd like to see the farm after I recover. I'm sure Ben would love it too." When she said the dog's name his head perked up and Roxy had to tell him to stay.
"We can go. There's a lot of things that you'll want to see after you are able to walk by yourself. We have so much here that you would never even dream of. Wait until you see the way our electricity works, and if you want we can go see the children while they do their school work with Jillian. The best is the view from the rooftop. The lack of pollution has made the sky look so much cleaner, but you don't really notice it if you're on the ground level. The color is perfect, especially at sunrise or sunset. Even with all the ruined building it is a gorgeous sight. I can't wait to show you."
"It sounds beautiful."
"We will go look at it when you're ready, but right now we have to go for a little walk. Linda wants to see you but we figured that you'd want to shower first."
"I'd love a shower."
"I thought so. Kate is just finishing up her breakfast and she offered to come help you if you needed. It's going to hurt to bring your arms up over your head and she thought you'd want your hair washed."
"I think I can do it myself." Roxy was confident that she would be able to maneuver a little bit more today, but when she had to have Josh help her up she realized that it wouldn't be so simple.
"It'll get better." Josh reassured her as they slowly crept along the hallway. Kate was already there when they reached the wash room. Roxy's breathing was heavy even though they walked at a slow pace, and her chest was aching.
"I know it might be a little strange, but you'll feel so much better after you wash your hair." Kate said after hearing how Roxy would have rather showered alone.
"Just let me try it by myself." Roxy's confidence remained high until she tried to get herself undressed. The shirt she was wearing was large on her, but when she tried to pull the shirt over her head she realized it was impossible.
"Kate!" She called and in a few seconds Kate entered the room.
"A little harder than it looks?" Kate jokingly asked. "I told you it wouldn't be easy. I'm surprised you lasted that long before calling me." The look on Roxy's face when Kate began to pull the shirt off of her made Kate stop. "Don't worry, I'm happily married."
That made Roxy laugh and become a little bit more comfortable. "I haven't had someone help me shower since I was a child."
"You'd be surprised how often it happens around here. People get hurt and we can only stand so much stink." She handed Roxy a wash rag and a bar of soap. "Go wash off, and when you're done I'll come in and wash your hair."
Even washing her body proved to be a problem. She couldn't bend down to wash her legs off and every movement sent knives into her rib cage. It took her ten minutes to completely wash herself off and by then the taste of blood was filling her mouth from the cut her teeth had left in her lower lip. She called to Kate and was relieved when the women began to massage shampoo into her long hair.
"Thank you for this." Roxy said as she stood under the fountain of water and rinsed the soap from her hair.
"Like I said before, you'd be surprised how often this happens." She massaged some conditioner into Roxy's long hair and told Roxy there was a towel outside the shower for when she had finished washing before leaving the room.
Roxy stood under the cascade of water for a few more minutes enjoying the warm water. It was the first time she had had a warm shower in months and she made a mental note to ask Josh how they did it. When she stepped out of the shower she was relieved to see that Kate had left the towel on the edge of sink so she wouldn't have to bend over to grab it. She dried herself off to the best of her ability and called for Kate again.
"I need clothes to get dressed." Roxy pointed out.
"Oops! I'm so sorry. We brought all of your clothes that you had from the truck in. I'll send Josh to your room and get them." She walked briskly from the room and a few minutes later returned with a pair of sweatpants, a long sleeve sweater, and under garments.
"I didn't see any bags in my room. Were they in the closet?" Roxy grimaced as she tried to slowly get dressed.
Kate let her do the best she could but she had to help hook her bra and pull the sweater over her head.
"No, there wasn't any bags in the rooms you were in. They weren't actual bedrooms; we just use them for people who need our help. We weren't even sure if you wanted to stay with us, but Josh insisted that we get you a room.
We will show you it when you want to tackle the steps again, but for now it's just easier to stay on this level."
"I see." Roxy felt so much better now that she had taken a shower, but she realized that her stomach was aching for some more food.
"There's still food left for breakfast down in the cafeteria if you're hungry." Kate said as if she had read her mind.
"I'm famished."
"I figured. I have some jobs I have to do but somehow Josh has gotten out of all of his again." She held the bathroom door open for Roxy as she spoke. "I'm quite sure he would love to introduce you to some people."
"That sounds great." They traveled through a maze of hallways to get to the cafeteria and Roxy thought she would never figure out how to maneuver through it by herself.
"Why isn't anyone walking through the halls?" Roxy asked when she heard the voices coming through the door to the cafeteria.
"Everyone has someplace to be around here and we usually run a tight schedule. Don't be doubting our numbers, because there are plenty of us here. There is probably about thirty people eating right now and the rest are at their jobs." She checked the watch on her wrist. "Speaking of jobs; I have to go to work. Josh is in here along with Ben, it shouldn't be hard to spot them."
Before Roxy even had time to reply Kate was gone. She stood in front of the door frame and listened to the murmuring of voices emitting from the other side. Her hands began to sweat. It had been so long since she had been with a group of people who weren't trying to kill her and part of her feared that they would try to do just that. Then she remembered how nicely she had been treated, and that Josh wouldn't let anything happen to here. She placed her hand on the door handle and slowly pulled.
The room went silent when she entered. At first it was just the people closest to her, but as the noise level decreased the attention being paid to her increased. For a moment her heart dropped to her toes. Her eyes frantically searched for Josh amongst the small crowd, but she heard his voice before she saw him.
"Roxy, it's nice to see you actually clean." He had walked up from behind her and was carrying a plastic plate and a bowl in his hands. Ben was following at his heels with his nose outstretched towards the bowl. "Why's everyone so quiet? It's not like she's going to hurt us."
"What hasn't anyone seen a pregnant lady before?" Roxy was relieved to see that it was Keith who had spoken.
"She is so young." Roxy couldn't tell who had spoken this time, but she didn't think it was anyone she had met.
"Which is all the more reason she needs our help." Josh handed Roxy the plate full of food and place his hand at the small of her back. While he guided her towards the table that Keith was seated the crowd started to talk again. Roxy set her plate down on the table and slid into her seat while Josh set the dog's food on the floor behind her.
"I'll be right back." He walked back towards the long table where the food was placed.
"Roxy, this is Sara and her daughter Caroline." Keith gestured to the young women across the table and the small child who was peeking around her. Roxy assumed Sara was in her late twenties. She had a heart shaped face with blonde hair that was tied up into a large bun on the top of her head. Her eyes were brown, but they had small yellow flakes that looked as if gold was sprinkled onto them. Caroline was a spitting image of her mother, but instead of brown eyes her eyes were ocean blue. Roxy thought that she looked to be about five.
"Hello," Roxy said shyly. "it's a pleasure to meet you both." She reached her right hand across the table and shook Sara's hand.
"It's nice to meet you too, Roxy. You are all that Josh talks about." The women's voice was deeper than Roxy had expected, but it was soothing. "I can see why now. You are a beautiful young women."
"Well thank you." She could feel the blood rushing to her cheeks.
"You're welcome." As she spoke Josh slid into the seat beside Roxy.
"I see Keith has introduced you to my cousin and her lovely daughter." He directed himself to the child who was hiding behind Sara.
"I'm Tim's daughter." Sara clarified. "Josh and Tim found us after this all started. My husband was in the National Guard so he wasn't home when everything started, but he kept us prepared."
"When we found them Sara had Caroline locked in the basement and she almost shot me when I knocked down the door." Josh's voice was accusing, but thick with humor.
"I wasn't going to shoot." His sister argued. "I was just taking precautions."
"I told you it was me five times before I knocked the door in."
"And I have told you a thousand times that I couldn't hear you."
"Okay you two." Keith interrupted. "You're cousins, not siblings."
During the whole argument Roxy was focused on Carline hiding behind her mother. At one point the little girl peeked through the space between her mother's arm and hip and Roxy waved. The girl smiled back but still didn't dare to emerge from her place of protection.
"She won't hurt you." Josh said to girl.
Sara turned her body so that she could whisper into her daughter's ear. Caroline nodded and her mother kissed her forehead. When Sara turned back around the girl cautiously climbed into the seat beside her. She had to sit on her knees to be able to see of the edge of the table.
"Hi Caroline. My name is Roxy." Roxy tried to make her voice sound as sweet and innocent as she could.
"Hi. I'm this many." The young girl held up six fingers to correspond with her age and everyone at the table couldn't help but to smile. "How old are you?"
"I'm seventeen, but I don't have enough fingers to show you."
"You could use your toes." The little girl slipped off her sneaker and sock on one foot and awkwardly picked it up in the air. She wiggled her five toes and ten fingers and said "Like this!".
That brought a round of laughter from the entire table. "Why is everyone laughing?" The girl seemed hurt.
"It's because you're so cute." Josh explained and the smile returned to the child's face.
Roxy looked down at her food for the first time and was relieved to see that there was an actual variety. A small bowl of soup wouldn't be her only meal anymore. Along with the soup there was a scoop of mashed potatoes and even some mixed vegetables. Roxy mouth was watering before she took the first bite of the potatoes. When she half way through the meal the little girl said her name.
"Yes, Caroline?"
"Why is your belly so big?" She was moving her mashed potatoes around with her spoon when she asked.
Roxy look at Sara, who gave her a welcoming nod, before answering the question. "My belly is so big because there's a baby inside."
"A baby?" The child's eyes grew wide and she looked up at her mom. "Why's there a baby in her belly? Did she eat it?"
The whole table erupted into laughter again. "No sweetheart," Her mother brushed a piece of hair back from the child's face. "You were in my belly once too."
"I was?" Caroline's face was filled with wonder. Her expression made Roxy long for the face of the child that was growing in her stomach. She protectively rested one hand on top of the bulge and continued to eat her soup with the other while Sara explained how the child in Roxy's belly was going to be a girl.
"Like a little sister?" Caroline's sweet voice and even sweeter voice had the whole table focusing on her.
Roxy swallowed and casually stirred her soup with her spoon as she spoke. "Well to be your sister it'd have to be your mommy's baby, but you can act like she is your little sister if you want." Roxy glanced around and noticed that many people from the surrounded tables were also engrossed with the conversation. Many were smiling, but she could also see that some of them looked disgusted. She made a mental note to ask Josh why some of them were so upset.
"Do you mean to pretend?" Caroline asked and Roxy replied with a nod. "Mommy!" The child exclaimed. "I'm going to be a big sister!"
The rest of the meal went by without much excitement. Roxy tried to pace herself but she finished before everyone else regardless. When Josh noticed that she was done he slipped his vegetables onto her plate and explained that she needed them because of the baby. Roxy reluctantly enjoyed her extra portion.
After Josh had finished his meal he offered to show Roxy around, but he promised her that he wouldn't make her tackle another set of stairs. Roxy agreed and said her goodbyes to Caroline, Sara, and Keith before carefully standing up. Josh had just reached her side when she felt the baby kick.
Roxy had thought that she had felt her child move before, but she had never been sure. This time the motion took her breath away and sent a searing pain through her rib cage. Black tunnels began to form in her eyes, but with the help of Josh she was able to steady herself.
"Linda told you that she was very strong." Josh said as he lowered her back into her seat. "She kicked a lot at first. That's why we've had you on so much pain medicine. On the way back here you were practically screaming in the truck every time she moved. I'm not surprised you don't remember it."
Tears were forming in Roxy's eyes and she had to take deep breaths to calm herself down. She wouldn't let herself seem weak in front of all these new people.
"What's the matter with her, Mommy?" She heard Caroline ask from the opposite side of the table.
"The baby is moving and it's hurting her." Sara whispered.
"Can I feel it?"
"Honey, I don't think that it's a good idea right now."
"That's alright, Sara." Roxy took another deep breath and tried to indiscreetly wipe the tears from her eyes. "Caroline can feel her. She isn't kicking so hard now."
"Yay!" The child proclaimed and climbed off of her seat and ran to Roxy's side.
"You have to be gentle though. Okay?" Sara's voice was stern and Caroline answered with her a sweet nod.
"Let me see your hand." Roxy reached out and gently took Caroline's hand and placed it on her stomach.
"I don't feel anything." The girl complained.
"Just wait a minute." Roxy could feel everyone in the room watching her, but she did her best to ignore them. When Caroline felt the movement in Roxy's stomach her smile stretched from ear to ear.
"Hi, baby sister" Caroline whispered to Roxy's stomach. "Thank you!" She exclaimed and ran around the table and back to her mother.
"Are you ready to go now?" Josh helped Roxy stand after she nodded and kept a hand protectively around her waist as she walked out of the room.
"I need something for this pain." She let her guard down now that she was alone with Josh.
"There's some in the room." He said as he helped ease her along the hallway.
The trip back seemed to take twice as long as the trip there and by then her chest was pounded. The baby had continued to kick, but there were two large kicks that almost brought Roxy to her knees. When they reached the door to the room Roxy was sobbing and Josh was doing his best to calm her down. After he got her safely to her bed he rushed to the cabinet and was back within seconds to hand Roxy two pills. When the painkillers were swallowed she melted against the soft cushion of the bed and braced herself for another kick. Josh pulled a chair to the side of the bed and made himself comfortable.
"That was terrible." She was trying to keep the child calm by running her palms against the skin on her stomach.
"The medication should keep her calm without hurting her, but it will probably make you pass out soon. " He brushed his blonde hair back with one swift motion and rested his hand on the edge of her bed.
"That's fine. I'm exhausted anyways." Roxy mimicked him by running her fingers through her long thick hair. It was still damp from the shower and so it felt heaves against her shoulders. Thankfully she had a hair tie on her wrist, but she was unable to get her arms up over her head to pile her hair into a bun.
"Do you want help?" Josh was already standing and reaching for the black hair-band before she could answer.
His touch was soft as he ran his fingers through her damp and knotted hair. She was surprised that he was able to use his fingers as a comb without pulling out half of her scalp.
"Have you done this before?" Roxy asked as he began to pull her hair back.
"On a girl? No, but I used to have really long hair."
"Really?" She couldn't seem to get a mental picture of him with long hair into her mind.
"Yea, I grew it out for my sister." His voice dropped off and Roxy could immediately tell that they were heading for a touchy subject. She gave him a silent invitation to continue but when he didn't she decided it would be best to say something.
"You don't have to explain anything if you don't want to." She could see the desperation and sorrow in his expression and so she moved her hand towards the place his were resting on her bed. Right before she reached them the baby kicked again.
"Damn it!" Roxy cried as she reached for her stomach and hunched over. Her vision was darkening again and her head was spinning.
"I'm going to go get Linda. Maybe she can do something more. Are you okay here by yourself for a few minutes?" Josh had stood up and was leaning over her. She couldn't form words so she just did her best to nod.
By the time Josh returned with a flush-faced Linda the baby had kicked twice more. Roxy was sure that her ribs were shattered by now because it hurt so much to breathe, but she was assured by Linda that they were not. Josh kept asking Linda if there was anything he could do and after the third time Linda sent him outside. Roxy could picture him pacing back and fourth outside the doorway. She could barely understand anything that Linda was saying. The only words that she could pick up were "ultrasound", "upstairs" and "medication". There were more pills being handed to her and she took them willingly. She was being carried by Josh up another flight of stairs when the darkness of sleep overtook her.
Before.
When Roxy woke up the next morning she knew that she had a concussion. The whole room was spinning around her and the thin beams of morning light shining onto her face from one of the loose boards on the window gave her an instant headache. She shielded her eyes with her hand as she tried her best to stand. When Sage woke a few minutes later Roxy was slouched over on the edge of the couch with her head resting against her knees.
"Are you okay?" He asked her groggily.
"No, but try to talk quietly." Even the soothing sound of Sage's voice sent a ringing through her head.
"Concussion?" Sage didn't lower his voice at all and she winced from the pain.
"Yes, some Tylenol would be appreciated."
"Let me wake up first." He replied as he rubbed his eyes with the back of his hands.
After what seemed like hours he finally had gotten up and walked into the kitchen to the cupboard where they kept the medications. By the time he returned with two small pills and a glass of water, Roxy had covered her head with a blanket and laid down.
"Doctor Sage to the rescue." He seemed to yell as she slowly peeled the covers back. She quickly swallowed the pills with a bit of water and was soon back under the blanket.
"Is the light bothering you?" Sage's voice seemed a bit quieter from her place under the blanket and Roxy was glad she had grabbed the thickest one they had.
"Yea. It's giving me a killer headache." Normally the lightening in the house was terribly dark. With no electricity they had no other option for lighting than using the sun, which was difficult when you were trying to keep things out. The lighting upstairs was much better, but they had blocked that entrance off months ago just in case one of them decided to learn how to climb.
"Well I can already tell they they knocked a bunch of boards loose last night. I am going to go out and fix them."
"I think if I have to hear you hammering my head will probably explode."
"I know. It will be muffled more if you go to one of the other rooms. You could even try to cram yourself into a closet and it would be dark."
That's what Roxy had to do for the next three days. She would sleep on the couch beside Sage and spend the rest of her time uncomfortably positioned in a closet or even on one of the stiff beds they had in the bedroom when Sage wasn't making too much noise outside. When the sun would set Roxy would wander her way back out into the living room and listen from under a blanket as the demons outside screamed and searched for something to fill their constantly empty stomachs.
"What do you think happened to them?" She asked Sage after spending most of the day trying to think of something else to call them.
"Happened to who?" Sage was covered completely by a blanket just like Roxy was, but only because she had made him. The flashlight he was using to read was too bright for Roxy's eyes and she didn't feel like sitting alone in another room for any longer.
"Everyone. How do you think this happened?"
"Oh." Roxy heard him switch off the light and uncover himself. "I don't know. It could be part of the IGD's, or it could've been the virus, but now I'm guessing it's mostly viral. Who really knows? It's not like we can test it."
"Yea, I guess." There was a long pause. "I wonder if anyone has tested it though. There has to be some actual civilization left somewhere. There is no way that nobody knew that this was happening."
"Don't you remember all of the interviews we heard on the radio on the way here. Everyone swore that they didn't know why this was happening." Sage argued.
"True, but the outbreak started in the US. Don't you think our government would take it upon themselves to notify someone? The UN?"
"Our government was full of corrupts. We owed half of the UN money and the other half wouldn't have had the military capabilities to hold of a zombie attack like this."
"We can't call them zombies. There is no way of knowing if they're the walking dead. Yea they obviously have little to no brain control, but that doesn't mean they're dead." Roxy had uncovered her head with the blanket and was thankful most of the noise from the screaming creatures outside was muffled.
"We can't call them anything else either. Vampire's might fit, because of their strength, but they're not just drinking blood."
"We can't name them because of how literature has portrayed them either. The stories have too many variations."
"Then let's just call them them or let's stick with zombies." Roxy could see only the outline of his body in the darkness, but she could tell he was going to the kitchen. "There's no use arguing about it." He stopped by the door way. "Do you want anything?"
"A water would be nice." She rolled onto her side and tried to get comfortable as she waited for him to return, but the thought of what exactly the monsters outside were was all she could think of.
The mutation couldn't be some kind of virus. Or could it? Was there some kind of virus that had been forming for years but the human race was too strong for it to infect? There easily could have been cases of it in some third world countries, but they would be easy to keep hidden. She wondered if they had to be dead and reanimated or if they would slowly just get sick until the virus took complete control over them.
When Sage returned he brought Roxy a water and a pop-tart. He had grabbed the same thing for himself. "These are the last two of them." He took a bite off the corner and quickly chewed it before continuing. "I just couldn't help myself when I saw them in the cupboard."
They ate their small meal slowly to try to enjoy the flavor of the treat more, but within five minutes they were both gone. Roxy didn't bring up the topic of them again, but she couldn't get the image of their piercing black eyes out of her mind. They haunted her dreams as she slept and her tossing and turning made Sage retire to one of the uncomfortable beds.
In the morning Roxy had to listen to Sage complain about how uncomfortable the beds were. After the third time he said something Roxy finally responded. "You should've kicked me out. It's not like I slept well anyways."
"I would rather you sleep better than me. You're the one that's hurt."
"Then stop complaining." And he did.
She actually felt a lot better this morning than she had the day before. The sunlight no longer killed her eyes, but she didn't think she was ready to go outside yet. The headaches weren't so pounding and after a few Tylenols she felt like a new person.
Sage took care of the usual duties for the day. When he came back into the house his clothes were drenched in blood and dirt, but that didn't surprise her as much as the grim look on his face.
"What's the matter?" Roxy asked him.
"There's still one alive out there." His voice dropped off.
"So? Kill it. It's not the first one we've found still crawling around." Roxy had killed quite a few crawlers herself, but most of the time she let Sage do it.
"It's a child."
"How old?" Roxy's heart had dropped to her toes. Sometimes they have dealt with children but it's never been easy for either of them. The last child they had was probably about seven, and Sage had decided it would be easier to just burn it where it was laying.
"Maybe three." Sage couldn't look Roxy in the eye as he spoke, but she knew that he couldn't take care of it.
"Do we let it die on it's own?"
"We can't let her suffer." Sage looked like he was about to pass out. All of the color had drained from he usually bright face and his eyes were beginning to water. "I can do it." He blurted out suddenly. "With your concussion I understand you don't want to be outside."
"Just go get cleaned up."
"But Roxy." He tried to argue, but Roxy had already grabbed her pistol and was making her way to the door.
As soon as the sunlight beamed in from the open door Roxy's head began to ache. She closed her eyes and took a deep breathe before taking her first step out into the sunlight. The yard looked no different than usual. The bodies were burning in the corner of the yard, and the familiar, but disgusting, smell made her feel like she could puke.
When she heard the gurgling moan from the small child she almost didn't look. She was stuck underneath one of the fallen two by fours, but the weight didn't seem to bother her. Her black eyes were focused on Roxy and she was snapping her small teeth in her direction. Roxy could barely see the whites of her teeth through the mess of blood and grim that coated her unnatural face, but she could easily see that the child was only a few years old.
Her left arm was pinned under the board, and the other reached towards her. She only had three fingers on her right hand, and all three of them were coated with the same black goo that drenched her clothes. Roxy was surprised to see that the child had just recently changed. Her dark hair was just beginning to fall out in thick clumps that covered the ground around her body. For a moment Roxy tried to think about what the child looked like before the change, but the thought made her heart ache. Then the thought that the child's parents were probably burning in the pile made Roxy completely sick. She leaned against the house and puked out what she ate for breakfast that morning.
When she was done she moved back to the child. The young girl was still desperately trying to grab at Roxy, but Roxy made sure to keep her distance. As she looked at the child withering on her ground before her she couldn't help but to think of her younger sister. Was she walking around trying to eat whoever was left of the human race? Or was she dead? Tears were forming in Roxy's eyes as she quickly aimed her pistol at the child's head and pulled the trigger.
On August 5th, 2014, an earthquake with a magnitude that exceeded the Richter scale caused a tsunami to demolish the east coast of the United States. Buildings were completely destroyed and every city within a hundred miles of the coast were completely submerged. This disaster was just the beginning of something much bigger.
Just ten minutes after the wave crashed into the Eastern Shore, another earthquake of the same magnitude hit just outside the coast of California causing another tsunami in the West. Scientists were baffled. Never had something this huge happened in such a small interval of time. The damage was heart wrenching. Thousands were lost on the first day alone, not to mention the ones lost in the aftershocks that continued in the weeks after. Hawaii was completely decimated. It was days before the government could even get the Coast Guard there and almost everything was underwater. Only a handful of people were able to be rescued.
It wasn't long until people started to get sick. At first it started out as "just the flu", but it didn't take long until doctors realized it was more. No matter how many vaccines were produced, or how many antibiotics the scientists tried obsessively to develop, nothing worked. Nothing. The United States as a whole was destroyed. People were fleeing to other countries in the Eastern Hemisphere to get as far away from the illness as possible. These countries welcomed the first immigrants with open arms, gladly accepting the refugees.
But it wasn't long until some people carried the virus to the other countries. As soon as the first signs of the virus were discovered countries shut down their borders. Most countries even put a ban on having goods imported, but it didn't work. Eventually towns were completely forgotten, and city populations were becoming frighteningly low. There were stories about some people who thought the cold could freeze it, therefore killing it. People began to move closer to the poles, but it seemed as if it couldn't be stopped.
A group of scientists in Nevada were trying desperately to stop it. They were working on a cure for the virus for months. They were testing it on animals because they didn't know how safe it was. There were stories about how most of the animals developed mutations that were even transferred to their offspring. Ridiculous tales were being told about dogs being born with six legs instead of four, and how this may have seemed like a bad mutation, it actually made the dogs faster and stronger. With the new speed also came new aggression. After two of the researchers were killed by the dogs, they had to be put down.
Then the idea that instead of finding a cure for the virus was formed. Scientists thought that they could try to find out how the immune remained unaffected. After months of testing they began to think that it was actually genetics. No one is exactly sure who came up with this idiotic idea, but the thought of a new scientific advancement in this horrible time thrilled what was left of the population. For weeks people spent their days inside waiting for news of a cure.
This is where the world truly took its downfall.
Scientists were at a war with each other. Many of them thought that trying to find a way to change people’s genetics would save them. While others thought it'd be best not to mess with genetics, especially when the world was dealing with a virus as strong as this one. Eventually the latter was defeated, and scientists began running tests on the genes of the immune. Finally they thought that they had found a gene that made those tested immune. Doctors immediately began to do surgeries or IGD's (immune gene displacements), in hope that they would help free the world of this illness. If only they would have known just how wrong they were.
Whatever the scientists did to those people's genes changed them. At first the government did its best to hide them. It was like nothing was wrong. For awhile people began to help rebuild Earth to its prior state. Only things didn't go back to normal like everyone had hoped. The people who had had the surgery to become immune from the virus had changed. The people became violent, some even murderous. For weeks the government tried to hide the news of these people acting out. Three months after the first of the surgeries had been administered was when the world began to worry.
A group of fifty-seven men, women, and children as young as three months were found dead in an 'abandoned' warehouse just outside of Detroit. Police reports said that the scene was more than gruesome. Somehow pictures of this tragedy were posted online. It was shortly after that when the riots began.
It started in Detroit when students at a high school began to skip school, and hundreds of students a day were absent. Finally the school board put their foot down and students began to come back. The first day that the school had a decent attendance rate, was also the day sixteen year old Clay Lion was found murdered in the restroom. The school board warned students that if they didn't show up to school they would be suspended. The next morning more than 300 students sat out on the school lawn, protesting. Classes were canceled. Of the classes that were still being held only a few students were present. But Detroit wasn't the only city being affected. Schools in cities such as New York, San Francisco, and Dallas were having similar problems.
After weeks of investigating it became known that students had begun to feel uncomfortable around some of their classmates and that was the reason they weren't attending classes. It turned out that all of the students who were making them uncomfortable had IGD's performed on them. It didn't take long for this chaos to spread all across the world. People didn't realize how they were setting themselves up for destruction. The patients that had IGD's were insane; it was as if something inside of them had snapped. They began to want power, and their anger continued to grow.
Some how a group of these people met, and in their minds it was a good idea to stick together. As their aggression grew, they began to formulate crazy ideas. It seemed as if these people believed it was their duty to get rid of all of the aggression going on. Of course, the only way they saw fit to do this was with more aggression.
A chemist named Kyle Redman and a scientist named Max Harrier came up with a clear, non-scented toxin to be put into smoke grenades. This toxin was deadly. At least that's what Kyle and Max believed. Kyle had refused to use it in any type of testing, even on animals. Which some of the more ill-minded people found slightly intriguing, considering later he used several of the toxic grenades on a group of 800 college students who were rioting at West Virginia University in mid September of 2015.
The effect that the toxin had on the students was unimaginable. At first it seemed as if the chemical had worked, everyone in the crowd almost instantly dropped to the ground. Being the sick-minded men that they were Kyle, Max and all of their followers decided to stick around for a few extra minutes. It didn't take long for the first one to get up, and soon about half of the eight hundred students, plus some of the police who were trying to keep them under control were up and staring at the men and women that were standing before them in gas masks.
Stories are passed on about how Max, Kyle, and all of his followers were ripped into pieces, skinned alive, or any other unimaginable way of dying. No one truly knew the truth, only that the scene was gruesome. There had been plenty of stories about mass murders, and suicides all across the United States similar to the one in Detroit, but this was different. The officers and paramedics that were dispatched to this scene seemed traumatized by what they saw. After several days some of the officers were interviewed for CNN news. Their descriptions of what they saw were terrible, but not comparable to the fear that was present in their eyes. They spoke of how there were bodies that were ripped apart, and some seemed to look like they had been chewed on, but by the time the paramedics arrived there was no trace of what could've happened to them. Of the eight hundred students suspected to be at the riot, only three hundred eighty six bodies found, including Max and Kyle. Parents of both the dead and the missing students were interviewed and eventually it all became clear. The students that were missing were only the ones who were able to have the IGD.
This was the first large step into the end of the normal world. Soon enough more mass-murder scenes were found. It became clear that Max and Kyle had created monsters, but only no one knew exactly what to expect from them. By the time that the military decided to get involved it was too late. Max and Kyle had already sent out large shipments of the toxin to group members in other countries. The monsters were strong and fast. At first it was unclear as to what they wanted, but quickly the world was able to figure out that it was more than the urge to kill that lead these creatures. For lack of a better term most called them vampires, but obviously they didn't fit the usual description. Some called them zombies and some just 'the damned'. But no matter the name these creatures were deadly, and it would take a lot of will power to survive in this new era.
October 3, 2016.
"RUN!" Sage yelled and grabbed hold of Sage's wrist, dragging her up the steps and into the house, and slamming the front door behind them. He pushed her towards the stairs and turned to secure the locks on the door. She was only three steps up when the first one slam into the door and the sound only made her run faster up the wooden steps slipping twice before finally reaching the top. By the time she turned to make sure Sage was behind her, he was already grabbing hold of her wrist and pulling her, again, towards the safe room.
Just as they reached the door they heard the door downstairs snap and instantly knew what was waiting for them down there. Roxy sprinted as fast as she could towards the door while clinging onto Sage the whole time. As they closed the door they could see the deformed head of the first one at the top of the stairs.
"Get in!" Sage screamed as the first one grabbed towards Roxy's foot, tearing off a piece of her jeans before she managed to dive into the safe room.
They both lay breathless on the floor, their bodies refusing to move. After a few minutes, Sage somehow found the energy to sit up.
"How the-" Roxy started but was interrupted by Sage.
"Don't you dare yell at me right now, Roxy Coleman?" By the tone of his voice she knew better then to continue.
Instead she stood and walked to the old couch that was on the other side of the room. As she sat, a layer of dust flew into the air. It had been a long time since they had been to this safe room, or even in this house. Most days they didn't venture far enough away from their home to not be able to make it back in time if need be, but this time Sage seemed to forget about time, and forgetting about time is how you end up dead, or worse. Of course, he wouldn't listen when Roxy told him it was time to head back. Typical for him. The world ends and he still doesn't listen to any advice from her.
After a few more minutes of silence something inside of Roxy snapped. She stood up and went over to Sage, who was still sitting against the wall with his head down. Out of pure rage, she kicked him in the thigh.
"What the -" He started but the last word was drowned out by Roxy's shouts.
"I told you! I. Told. You. Sage! Come on, I told you we needed to get home and you didn't listen! Now those devils are outside, probably ripping our car to shreds. Our car! The only thing we had left to get around in this godforsaken town and we have to leave it by the porch all because you didn't listen to me!" He tried to talk but she continued. "You could've gotten us infected! Do you realize how close that was! One had hold of my pant leg, and it's amazing it didn't bite me. I left my home and my entire family because I thought us working together would be unstoppable. Somewhere in Virginia my parents and Jess are just like those monsters, those bloodthirsty, heartless, zombies!" By this point the tears were starting to form in her eyes, but to make her point she took a swing at Sage and hit him as hard as she could in the arm.
"Roxy... I-"
"Just stop okay? Stop. I don't care right now." And with that she walked to the couch and laid down, making sure her back was towards him. She cried for what seemed like an eternity, but just as she started to drift off into sleep Sage joined her and wrapped his arms around her. Instead of pushing him away she turned inched closer to him and drifted off into a restless sleep.
Before.
Sage and Roxy had lived in small suburban homes just outside of Richmond, Virginia. Roxy was sixteen the day that Kyle and Max created the terrible mutations out of the three hundred and some people. Her birthday was only in a week, and she was spending almost all of her time planning a party for her and all of her friends. She had a sister named Jessica, but everyone called her Jess, or Jessie. Her mother was a doctor, and she was the reason that Roxy had not had the IGD. She didn't trust the surgery. She seemed to think that the surgery was a hoax. No one had ever tried to change genes like this, and to her it wasn't safe. Even though without it, they could be sickened with the virus that had killed so many. Her father, a high school history teacher, disagreed. He believed that without the IGD they would be infected with the virus and die. He had talked Jessie into getting the surgery also, but Roxy agreed with her mother.
Sage was eighteen and lived just across the road from Roxy. Sage and Roxy had been best friends since they could remember. Sage was a year older, but somehow they were still inseparable. He was an only child and lived with both his mother and father. His mother was a divorce lawyer for a law-firm just outside of Richmond. Sage's father was also a doctor, but unlike Roxy's mother he thought the idea for the IGD was brilliant. Both of Sage's parents had the IGD performed on them, and Sage was scheduled for one in less than a week, when Sage came running across the street and crashed into the Coleman's house, with sweat dripping from his face and his white t-shirt splattered with little red drops. He was crying, which was a sight that Roxy had never seen in the years that they had been friends. He collapsed on the floor just inside of the Coleman's kitchen, with his chest rising and falling rapidly from breathing hard, and his entire body trembling. For a few minutes Roxy and her parents tried to get him to explain what was wrong, but between the sobbing and the trembling none of them could understand what he was trying to say.
Roxy gave up on trying to calm him down and did the best she could to look for a place on Sage that the blood could have come from. When she didn't find anything, she immediately called the police, and soon there were lights flashing out on the street. His father, in a fit of anger, had killed his mother and then turned the gun on himself. Sage had never let it be known how aggressive both of his parents had become, and so it came as a surprise to all of the Coleman family. Police officers questioned Sage, and he tried his best to answer them. Eventually after a few days of investigations, and a funeral, things calmed down quite a bit.
Since Sage was 18 he was able to live on his own, but he never did. He seemed to spend most of his time with Roxy. In fact it seem as if the only time he left the Coleman home was late at night and that was only because Roxy's parents weren't comfortable with having him stay. Every night Sage would stay with one of his other friends, but he always seemed to return to the Coleman's by 8 A.M. He refused to stay at his old home, and so he sold it to a new married couple.
Sage was a free spirit. Growing up he didn't take anything serious. He wasn't good at saving his money, and he had no credit experience. He soon realized that selling his old home was not a good idea, there was absolutely no way he could find a decent place to live, even with all of the money he had made from his prior home he would never be able to afford the bills, and after the loss of his parents he seemed to not care about anything except for Roxy. After much begging from both Roxy and Jessie, who always seemed fascinated with the older boy, the Coleman’s offered for Sage to move in with them until he got his feet planted. If only he had had enough time.
October 7, 2016.
They were chasing her, but she had a head start, and a pretty large one. The only problem was how inhumanly fast they were. She has less than thirty seconds, but there's nothing she can do except run. She wouldn't go down without a fight, even though it'll be useless to try to overpower them. Just as her legs began to give out the first one jump onto her back. The unexpected weight made her fall face first onto the hard pavement. She could see the others approaching. All of them were hairless, not just the men like her and Sage had originally thought, but all of them. Their eyes were as black as pitch, and surrounded by a deep crimson red. Their skin was grey, but it was easy to see all of their veins. Most wore ripped clothes that were stained with red and Roxy tried to not think about whose blood it was.
One in particular had caught her attention. It was a child, but Roxy couldn't tell the difference until it walked closer to her. The young girl knelt down to Roxy's level. Her face was almost unrecognizable; a long thick scar ran from the left side of her forehead and continued underneath the collar of her shirt. The right side of her face was covered with smaller scars. Still somehow Roxy knew that it was her sister, and just as she realized this she was bit in the arm. The last thing she saw before she woke up was her sister’s smile.
She woke up screaming and scared Sage so much he fell off of the couch. Tears were streaming out of her eyes, and her body was drenched in sweat. When she realized that it was a dream she started crying even harder.
"I'm scared." As the words left her mouth she realized that she was more than scared, she was absolutely terrified. Sage didn't say anything simply because there was nothing he could say. Instead he pulled himself back on to the couch and embraced her. Immediately she buried her face into his shoulder. His black hair and grown out over the past few months and it ticked her cheek as she held onto him. He didn't say anything to her; instead he ran his fingers through the length of her long brown hair until she fell asleep. Sage didn't sleep well that night. He kept thinking about how sad Roxy's sea-green eyes had looked before she fell asleep.
He blamed himself for the death of Roxy's mother. If they would have came home from school when Roxy wanted to they probably could have saved her. If her mother was with them now their lives would be simpler. Sure they'd have one more person to feed, but at least she could cook. Sage knew how it felt to lose his family, but he still didn't know how to comfort Roxy. She had done so well comforting him after his parents deaths. All she had to do was look into his deep blue eyes and he felt at ease, and he wished he could have the same effect on her.
Sage left before Roxy woke up. She hated him going out alone, but she was glad he didn't wake her. After the emotional day, she was grateful for a few extra hours of sleep, but she knew she had things to do. Inventory was the first priority. Without a car they'd be stuck in for a while. The walk back to their home in Edmonds was too far to make in a single day, and definitely too dangerous. Though the chances of running into another human were unlikely, it still did happen, and they could be more dangerous than the monsters.
As Roxy was halfway through the supplies she heard a noise at the door and immediately picked up a pistol that had been left on the counter. She relaxed when she saw Sage's familiar blue eyes.
"Sorry, tough habit to break." She apologized and went to put the pistol back on the counter but until she noticed the red-purple liquid that covered his shirt. "Oh my god." She exclaimed, "What happened?"
"It's not mine. I'm not hurt." He said just as she reached him.
"Then whose is it?"
"They got in last night remember; I had to take care of the dead ones."
Roxy shuddered as the picture of the monsters bodies thrown across the floor raced into her thoughts. They were probably very angry about their escape last night, which meant that outside the safe room there was probably a bloody fight between them. Of course the stronger ones probably ripped the weaker into shreds. She shuddered again as pictured Sage being ripped in half by one of them, and quickly pushed the thought from her mind.
"How's the car?" As Roxy spoke she turned back towards the pile of canned goods she was sorting through.
"Destroyed. Completely. We will have to find another one. "
"Did you lock the door at the home?"
"Yea everything should be secure, at least until we get back."
"Which will be when, Sage?"
"I should be able to find a car by Friday."
"And what if you don't?"
"I will." Roxy knew better than to argue with him. He would find them a car and get them out of this mess, just like he always did.
"Okay, well it's Tuesday right? We will have enough food here to last us until at least Sunday."
"Perfect. I'm going to get cleaned up. Take a nap you look exhausted" And with that he walked towards the bathroom.
"I'm not even tired." She replied, but even as she said it she went back to sit on the couch. Before Sage finished washing up she was sleeping again.
Before.
Neither of the two teenagers had much interest in going to school anymore. On the days that they did go there was hardly anyone there anyways. Most of the staff and students had just seemed to give up, especially after the terrible incident at West Virginia. The news of the 800 dead or missing students at WVU had frightened everyone in the area. Some parents just wouldn't allow their children to go to school and a good portion of the student body were infected or even killed by the virus. The few times that they had gone there had never been a class with more than five students.
On one morning Roxy and Sage were woken up by Mrs. Coleman and told to get out of the house. Jessie had got sick and they couldn't tell if it was a virus or just the flu, but they didn't want to chance it and have Roxy and Sage get sick too. It was Sage's idea to go to school that day, but he didn't know that by doing so he was saving both his and Roxy's lives.
That day at school was unusually boring. By 11:30 Roxy was begging Sage to go home, and by 1 he finally gave in. The remaining staff members didn't care if they left. Actually most of them envied the fact that they could leave if they wished. As they walked home Sage could easily see how distressed Roxy was about Jessie, so he tried to quicken their pace.
As soon as Sage opened the door to the Coleman home he knew something was wrong. The whole house smelled terrible. Sage and Roxy walked into the house and yelled as best they could to try to find Mr. and Mrs. Coleman along with Jessie, but to no avail. It was Sage who found the note on the table from Mrs. Coleman. It described how something had gone terribly wrong, and how sorry she was that she didn't have time to warn them in person. With the note was a set of directions to Roxy's Uncle Jason's house in Georgia. Behind that was a note addressed directly to Sage telling him to get Roxy as far away as possible, along with all of the Coleman credit cards.
Sage was confused at first, but as he looked up from the kitchen counter top he saw something that stained his thoughts forever. Mr. Coleman was standing against the glass door that led into the kitchen. His clothing drenched in blood, and a crazed look in his eyes that made Sage shiver, so he ran as fast as he could upstairs. Luckily, most of his clothes were packed into his suitcase still, but it took some time to get enough of Roxy's clothes stuffed into an old suitcase. Sage did almost all of her packing, as she sat on her bed, staring at the crumpled note that her mother had left. The noted addressed to Sage was tucked carefully away in his pocket.
As they left the house for the very last time Sage looked back towards the kitchen door. In his mind he had hoped that nothing would be there. He regretted looking as soon as he saw not only Mr. Coleman, but Jessie too. Both of them were staring blankly towards him while trying to push through the glass door. Another shiver ran down his spine as he guided Roxy towards the car.
Sage drove for hours while Roxy screamed, cried, and yelled for him to turn back and go home. After she tried punching him and screaming finally she realized her efforts were useless. The drive to Jason's home was just over two hours. Once the duo reached Jason's house she realized just how serious this new situation was.
Jason's house was abandoned, and the two tried their hardest to keep their minds from wandering to where, or in Sage's case, what he was. After a few hours of searching and waiting for Jason to show up, Sage finally told Roxy what he'd seen at her home. He didn't go into gruesome detail, and he didn't need to. After he had finished, Roxy looked at him in awe, and he was afraid that she wouldn't believe him. He took the other note from his pocket and set it in front of her. After reading it, Roxy broke down again. Sage held her until they both fell asleep. In the morning Sage found her in the living room with a pile of weapons and ammo on the floor in front of her, and the news playing clips of people who looked similar to Mr. Coleman and Jessie terrorizing towns.
"Is that what you saw Sage?" She asked her voice flat and cold.
Reluctantly he answered "Yea, that's pretty much it?"
She didn't reply, instead she picked up a shot gun off of the floor in front of her and handed it to him. Her face showed no emotion.
October 7, 2016.
"Roxy!" Jess yelled as she ran from the car directly at her. "I missed you so much! I'm never leaving again." Her arms wrapped around Roxy neck as she picked her up and spun her around.
"Good, because I missed you too. You're too small to go to a two week summer camp anyways! How was the camp?" She set her back on the ground and took a seat in the grass.
"It was great! All we did was play soccer! All day long, and there was a guys camp there with a bunch of kids your age and some of them got to come over and help us out. It was great. I learned a lot!" She sat too and began picking the grass out of the ground.
"That's great Jess, I'm sure you're going to be great this upcoming season."
"Promise you'll go to all of my games!" Her eyes lit up as she waited for the response.
"Of course I'll go to every one!"
And that was it. No monster chasing her and no death. Dreams like that were the worst for Roxy. They reminded her of her old life, before the monsters, before the killing. Looking back Roxy realized that she never got a chance to go to even one of her sisters games. Jessie was so upset because the day that she became infected was the same day as her first game. She just couldn't find the energy to make it to school. Roxy couldn't blame her, it wasn't her fault.
Roxy wandered around the room trying to do things to keep her mind from wandering without success. There was only so much that she could do before boredom set in. Hours upon hours were wasted during the day. There were only so many books that could be read and so many hours she could sleep. No internet, no cell service, and no television. It was a new level of boredom that was impossible not to feel. Eventually she just sat on the edge of the couch beside Sage, who had fallen asleep, and waited for him to wake up. She sat there for at least two hours, knowing she should have woken him, but she knew it wouldn't be fair.
He awoke just after the first ear-splitting cry. He mumbled something barely audible, but Roxy was sure it involved a few choice words for the demonic creatures outside.
"Sage." Roxy's voice was barely audible
"What? Is everything okay? What's wrong?" He sat up and reached for the gun.
"Everything's fine. Relax." The tension seemed to melt from his features as she spoke.
"Are you okay?" His voice was thick with concern. It still amazed Roxy how Sage seemed to be able to read her thoughts. He knew how she felt without her saying one word.
"You know me too well," She sighed deeply "I just miss everyone."
"I miss everyone too, but there's nothing we can do about it sweetie." Roxy was used to the pet names and had actually begun to like them. Several times she found herself calling Sage names like Honey.
She curled up beside him again but didn't say anything. It was relaxing. Neither of them hadn't felt this relaxed in months. Soon Roxy drifted off to sleep again. When she woke she was still in the same position. She breathed a sigh of relief when she realized that she had actually managed to sleep without having any dreams. Sage was still awake, absentmindedly playing with her hair.
"I'm so exhausted." She complained into his chest.
"We had a rough couple of days." He sighed, and continued to run his fingers through her hair. "I'm sorry about yesterday. I should've turned back when you said so. I know how you were just beginning to feel at home there. We'll make it back; I promise we'll make it back. I just need to find us a car. Then we'll be back home."
"I know."
"I know?" He asked.
"Yes, Sage. I know. That's all I've got to say. I was feeling at home and now that I've lost that I can't stop thinking about my true home. Our home, Sage. With Mom, Dad, and Jessie. I miss it all. I miss going to school. I miss being able to go to the mall and doing things that normal Eighteen year olds do." She pushed herself off of him, and stood. "I hate this place Sage. I hate this world. We are alone, and we're more likely the only humans left that don't have whatever makes those monsters! I'd rather be one of them then be alone!"
Roxy was never the kind of girl to throw a fit when something didn't go her way, unless it was something truly important to her, like when Sage needed a home. Right now she was just angry. Angry and upset.
Suddenly, Sage grabbed her wrist and turned her towards him. His other hand moved to her jaw line and he leaned in till their lips just barely touched. He pulled back quickly to see what her reaction was. A small tear fell to her cheek and he gently wiped it off, and then leaned in for a kiss more passionate then the first.
Immediately she melted into him. It seemed like they were meant to do this. Like they were meant to be all alone in this terrible new world. Soon a kiss turned into more. The last thing Roxy heard before she fell asleep was Sage whispering that he loved her.
Before.
Roxy didn't have the heart to stay in the abandoned home of her Uncle so the two quickly moved on. Roaming, in search of a place they could make secure. It wasn't easy. Most of major towns were completely shut down, no one could get it and no one could get out. Every where they went they ran into trouble. The zombies seemed to be growing in number by the day, but that wasn't all they had to worry about. Uninfected humans were just as dangerous. Gangs formed and took over almost all of the stores and gas stations. You could still buy gas at some of them, but only if you were willing to pay the price. Luckily, most of the people they came across were helpful to two teenagers, though none of them offered for Sage and Roxy to stay permanently.
After only a few weeks they arrived at their new home. It was just outside of Edmonds, and north of Seattle. Washington wasn't a place either of them had been before, but after driving around for what seemed years, they didn't have much of a choice.
Their 'home' was actually part of a small gated community. For Sage it was the gate that caught his attention of the area, and after entering they realized it was deserted. Not a sole person in sight. The basement of the home was not completely underground. There was about two feet of raised concrete before the structure of the house actually began. Three concrete steps led to the front door of the house. It needed a lot of work, but after the few run ins they had on the trip there with the other humans and the zombies Sage was too cautious to go out and look for supplies. Instead they just used some old two-by-fours to cover up then windows and doors.
The first night in the house was hell. Roxy heard the first of them shuffling around outside, and she tried to ignore it the best she could. The advice from one of the men they bought gas from was fresh in her mind, "Keep quiet, and they'll leave you alone."
But they didn't stop. Roxy was barely breathing, and Sage was a silent sleeper, but they still didn't leave. They began to howl, and it wasn't until then that Sage woke up. Just as he made a motion to show that he was awake the first one slammed into wood blocking the door. Roxy couldn't help but scream, and Sage wasn't fast enough to cover her mouth to muffle the sound. The monsters outside went wild.
Sage immediately reached for his gun, and Roxy followed him. She knew that there was no way they could kill all of them. They began to surround the house; their bodies were slamming into not only the front door but all of the windows. Roxy's heart was racing in her chest. She moved close to Sage and grabbed his shaking, sweaty hand. They stood like that as they waited for the wood to smash and the monsters to storm in.
October 8, 2016
When Roxy woke she felt comfortable, the familiar smell of Sage soothed her and she didn't want to move. It wasn't until she realized that neither of them had clothes on that she scrambled out of the bed and covered herself with a nearby blanket.
"Sage! What did we do?" Her screaming barely stirred him. It wasn't until she hit his chest that he finally woke.
"What are you doing?" He asked groggily.
"What do you mean what am I doing?" She screamed. "What did we do?"
"Well Roxy you did take health class. You shouldn't need me to explain."
"This isn't funny Sage! Do you not realize that we didn't use anything?"
"Oh!" He sat up now. "I didn't even think" He rubbed his temples with his pointer fingers.
"I didn't either! Sage how could we be so stupid!" She collapsed on the couch beside him and put her head in her hands in despair.
Sage didn't reply, and for that Roxy was grateful. Sage eventually said he was going out to look for a new car. She spent most of the day on the couch. Thinking about how stupid they had been. A few times she laughed at the irony of the situation, but her laughter always turned into tears. All throughout their teenage years both of their parents feared that their hormones would take control over them and somehow Roxy would have ended up pregnant. She never thought about having sex back when the world was normal, but now that the world was destroyed her hormones had taken over.
When Sage returned he told her that he had found a car, but by then it was too late to make the four hour drive back to Edmonds from Abbotsford.
Neither of them spoke much that night. Roxy heated two cans of soup on the stove and realized that she couldn't eat, so Sage ate her portion. After dinner Sage tried to talk to Roxy about what had happened, but she just buried her head into the pillow on the couch and cried herself to sleep.
Roxy woke from a restless sleep and was somewhat disappointed to find Sage sleeping on the floor. She glanced at the watch on her wrist and noted that it was just after six. The zombies would be gone soon and they could head home. Normally, she would have woken Sage, but instead she rolled back over and closed her eyes.
That morning they left as soon as it was safe. It felt good to return to their 'home'. Even though the car Sage had found barely had enough gas to make the trip back. It wasn't until they reached their destination that they relaxed. As Roxy unlocked the door she realized just how tense she had been, both her back and jaw ached.
The next few days went by slowly. Roxy spent most of her time in the bedroom, sulking like a small child who just lost their favorite stuffed animal. She was scared to death, and was trying her best to hide that from Sage, but it didn't work.
Again Sage tried to talk to her about what had happened. The first time she didn't say anything to him, but stood up and walked to the room where she usually slept and shut the door. She was angry with both herself and Sage, and talking about what had happened only made her angrier.
The next time Sage brought up the subject Roxy lost her temper. She slammed the book that she was reading shut and tossed it on the table before yelling at Sage to just shut up and leave her alone. The entire time Sage stared at her dumbfounded. It wasn't like Roxy to yell in tough situations, and he didn't know what he could do.
After she finished screaming at him she stormed out of the house, leaving the front door open. Sage watched her slam the car door shut before speeding off down the road.
When Roxy returned just before sunset she found Sage lying on the couch. His eyes were puffy and red. Roxy's heart ached when she saw him, and she curled up with him on the couch with tears forming in her eyes. She buried her head into Sage's chest and repetitively apologized.
"I've been acting like a five year old." She said, her voice muffled by his shirt.
"It's okay. We will be okay." He promised into her hair.
Before.
It was Roxy who noticed that the zombies didn't like the daylight. She had spent the entire night glancing anxiously from the doorway to the watch on her wrist. She felt as if she had been hearing the screaming from the monsters outside for days, but in reality it was only minutes. Eventually, she noticed that the screams were diminishing. She waited for Sage to say something about it but he didn't seem to know that they were leaving. Eventually there was silence.
Roxy breathed a sigh of relief, but Sage was still tense. His hands were ghostly white from the grip that he had on his shotgun, and his jaw was clenched.
"Sage." Roxy whispered but he didn't seem to hear her. "Sage." She repeated, and this time nudged him with her elbow. Again, there was no reply.
Instead of waiting for Sage, Roxy decided to go check if they had left for herself. She took a deep breath and slowly stood up. Her joints were stiff from sitting in the same position the entire night and her head was pounding, but she still made her way across the room and to a nearby window.
She tiptoed through the shattered glass on the floor. Before she even reached the window she noticed that the two-by-fours had bent inward from the pressure. A small patch of light was shining through one of the openings between the boards. Roxy worked up the nerve to look outside, but immediately wished she hadn't.
The grass was stained completely red. Out of the small area that she could see there were only a few small patches of green, but that wasn't the worst part. Bodies were sprawled across the lawn, all of them unmoving. Before Roxy could take it all in she felt Sage's hands on her shoulders pulling her away.
"They're gone. Or dead." Her voice was barely audible.
"All of them?" To Roxy it sounded as if he was screaming. She couldn't find her voice again so instead she just shook her head.
"Stay here." He commanded. "I'm going out."
Roxy couldn't make herself stay inside while he went out. When she reached the door her heart dropped. The door was almost completely shattered. Roxy had no idea how it had held up. Most of the two-by-fours were snapped in half and ripped off of the door frame. There were only six left, and all of those were the ones they put inside the door frame just in case.
Sage began to cut down the remaining two-by-fours with an ax that they had found the day before. When he finished the whole thing was covered in a thick layer of red. The monsters had destroyed each other in their attempt to get to Sage and Roxy. Outside the door was a pile of bodies.
"We have to get rid of them" As he spoke his eyes never left a head that was almost completely torn from its body.
"We need to fortify this place first if this is where we are going to stay." Roxy had moved back into the house. The smell of the blood alone was making her queasy; she didn't think she could look at the pile of mangled bodies without throwing up.
Finding the tools and supplies to fortify the house was easy. There was a home depot only a mile or so away and plenty of trucks still left to haul what they needed back to the house. The gate that had surrounded the community was destroyed. Sage and Roxy had to move the bent and broken pieces of metal out of the road to exit the community. By four in the afternoon the two were exhausted. Their clothes were drenched with sweat, but they felt the house was now safe enough to stay in for the night.
Even with the house safe they knew their work wasn't done yet. They had spent the day working around the body parts of the zombies and they knew if they left them there for the night there would just be more to do tomorrow, and they'd have to make any repairs to the damages of the next wave of zombies.
It was Sage who thought to take the bodies to the dump. "It's not like we need to bury them." He said. The dump was about a half hour away and they figured that if they both drove a truck-bed full a piece they'd get rid of them all.
During the "clean up" they actually made more of a mess. Within the first twenty minutes of shoveling the body parts into the back of the truck, Roxy had puked twice. After the second time she kicked the almost decapitated head that Sage was staring at earlier. "Go to hell." She said as the head fell off completely and rolled down the steps. It came to a stop just before Sage's feet. When he looked up to Roxy he noticed she was laughing.
"What is so funny?" His voice was thick with irritation.
"We are so stupid." Her laughter started to build and she had to take a minute to calm herself down before she continued. "Why don't we just burn them?"
Burning the bodies proved to be much easier than hauling them to the dump, but the smell was almost unbearable. The smell of burnt flesh and hair was something Roxy and Sage would never get used to. By the time the flames had settled it was almost five o'clock, which meant that they still had another hour or so until they had to be safely inside.
It was Roxy who grabbed Sage's wrist and pulled him towards the pool. When Sage realized where she was taking him he followed eagerly. Roxy stopped by the edge and began to take off the blood-soaked t-shirt, and jeans. Sage did the same. Together they jumped into the pool wearing only their under clothes.
January 19, 2017
By now Roxy was spending most of her morning on the small bathroom floor. She kept trying to blame it on the nerves, but Sage knew that it was much more than that. Roxy was pregnant, and they would have to bring a child into this hellish new world.
Roxy became very distant. Sage tried to give her food but she would never touch it. Instead, she spent most of her time during the day staring at random objects in the living room, and at night she would simply listen to the shrieks and wails coming from the terrible creatures outside.
Finally, Sage snapped. Roxy was lying on her bed staring at the ceiling when she heard him in the kitchen muttering to himself. Eventually, he brought out bowl filled with soup and put it in front of her.
"Eat."
"Not hungry." She didn't even look at him as she spoke in a cold, uncaring voice
"Roxy Coleman, you need to eat." He pleaded.
"I said I'm not hungry."
"Look at you Roxy, you look dead. I am sick of seeing you like this. You're killing yourself and you're killing that baby. I won’t let that happen." Sage put his hand on Roxy's rounded stomach. She was about four months along now, but to Sage it seemed like she had lost weight instead of gaining. When she didn't reply he continued. "Is that what you want Roxy? To die? Is it your plan to just wither away into nothing and take our child with you? "
The anger in his voice seemed to stir something in her.”Of course it's not. I'm just not hungry." For the first time in months she seemed to show some emotion, but it wasn't good enough for Sage.
"That's bull Roxy and you and I both know it. If you want to die you can do it a quicker way. Walk outside. Let those monsters tear you apart. Actually, if things don't change I'll just open the door and let them in. I'm sure they'd appreciate that." He stood up, clearly unable to control his anger. His voice had risen to a shout and his face was beginning to redden.
"That's not what I want Sage and you know that." Roxy's voice was just above a whisper, and Sage wasn't even sure he heard her correctly.
"If that isn't what you want then eat something. Stop starving yourself and that child. Our child." With that he stormed out of her room. Roxy heard a door slam, but she couldn't tell which one. She glanced at a clock and noted that it was before noon. She didn't have to worry about him going out right now.
Instead she tried to do things to keep her mind off of him. Her first priority was to eat. After their fight she realized she was completely famished. She took the bowl of soup from were Sage had left it and took a bite. Within minutes it was gone, but Roxy's hunger wasn't. She walked to the kitchen and took out another can. She lit the stove with a match. Luckily the home they had chosen had a gas stove, and with everyone gone they didn't have to pay a gas bill.
While she waited for the soup to warm up she decided to go to the bathroom and look at herself in the mirror. Immediately she realized that Sage was right, she did look dead. Under her sea-green eyes were purple circles that looked almost black against her pale-grey skin. Her light brown hair was knotted and tangled in a long pony tail high up on her head. She barely recognized herself. Although she had always been small she looked really unhealthy now. She lifted up the over sized t-shirt that she was wearing, and could see her rib cage. Beneath them was the small bump.
She wasn't ready to be a mother, she didn't think that she'd ever be, but she had to face the truth. She was having Sage's child, and couldn't think just for herself anymore. She had to grow up now; the time to act childish was over.
Eventually she went back to the kitchen and poured her soup into a bowl, and took to the couch to eat. She tried to pace herself, she had eaten so little for so long and she didn't want to upset her stomach.
After she finished her bowl of soup she just waited for Sage to come back, but by 6:30 Roxy began to worry, and when he didn't come back by the first shriek she was frantic.
It wasn't like Sage to not come home and Roxy's first thought was that he was dead. At first she was just angry, but she couldn't decipher whether she was angry at him or at herself. She didn't cry until after she punched the wall. The pain from the punch brought forth the pain of her loss. Even though there was a slight chance he was alive she wouldn't let herself believe it. She would much rather assume he was dead and rejoice when he wasn't, then spend the rest of her life waiting for him to come home.
Before.
They got out of the pool and were drying off when they heard the first of them outside. Even with the reinforcements on the house they still didn't feel completely safe, so they didn't sleep. It wasn't until Sage said something about them starting to leave that Roxy fell asleep. When she woke up Sage was gone, but she could smell the burning flesh. She took her time going outside. She figured that most of the bodies were burning by now but she didn't want to risk having to carry more bloody body parts to the fire. When she finally made it outside she noticed that the pile was smaller than it was the day before.
"Maybe they will just kill each other off. Till there's none left." She said to Sage who was facing the flames, with his hands in his pockets. On the ground to his left was a bright yellow rain jacket was smeared with red. "Where did you find that?" She asked.
"I made a trip to home depot today. The place was a mess, but I managed to find this, and I got one for you too. So we don't have to get their blood all over us."
"Good idea. We can just rinse them off and reuse it." She turned back towards the house, unable to stand the potent smell of burning flesh for any longer.
Soon after Sage followed her, and laid down on the floor. Roxy could easily tell that he hadn't slept at all. His face was covered with dirt and Roxy assumed blood too. His long black hair was pushed out of his face and sticking up in different directions.
"You're a mess. Why don't you go clean up a little?" When he didn't move Roxy slid off her position on the couch and ran her fingers through his damp hair. "You smell like sweat." She teased.
"I worked hard this morning, and I'd rather smell like sweat than like chlorine." The potent smell from their time in the pool hadn't faded. Roxy had added more to the pool after they cleaned off, so she knew that if he went in now it'd be even worse than before.
"Then just use the shower. It'll probably be freezing though."
"I'd rather stink." He mumbled.
"If you go clean up I'll make dinner." She tried to sound enthusiastic, but canned goods weren't appetizing anymore.
"I'd rather starve than eat any more canned soup."
"Well it's not like I can drive downtown and pick up a pizza, Sage."
He took a deep breath and pushed himself up off of the floor without replying. Silently he walked towards the bathroom. It took a few minutes for Roxy to force herself to the kitchen. She was sick of soup too, but it wasn't like they could just go to the super market and pick up food. By now all of the food was gone. At the last store they went to most of what was left was rotting on the shelves. They had taken whatever was left and most of that was already gone. They had a few bags of chips, but they couldn't make that a meal.
What Roxy really wanted was a loaf of bread, or a gallon of milk. Less than a year ago she took things like that for granted. If she wanted milk all she had to do was walk to the refrigerator, and if there wasn't any there the grocery store was less than five blocks away. Now a trip to the grocery store could kill them if they weren't careful, and most likely there was nothing good left anyways.
While Roxy stared blankly towards the canned food in the cupboard she realized that they may have to start to hunt if they wanted food other than soup. They had picked up enough weapons and ammo along the way, but neither of them had ever been hunting. Roxy had taken a hunters education course but that was just to make her father happy.
By the time Sage returned from the bathroom Roxy had two bowls of steaming vegetable beef soup on the table. She saw Sage roll his eyes when he saw it but he still sat down and began to eat. When he finished he looked up at Roxy who was staring at him intently.
"What?" He asked as he wiped his chin with the sleeve of his shirt.
"I have a plan, but I don't know how well it will work." As she spoke she let go of her spoon and it slid down into her half eaten soup.
"A plan for what?"
"To get food."
"We have food."
"We have soup, and outdated potato chips."
"We have more than that."
"Really? Like what?" Roxy was the one who always took inventory of the food, and she knew anything else Sage said would be wrong.
"We have some granola bars," Sage's voice was thick with confidence, but Roxy knew better.
"You ate the last one a week ago."
"And pop-tarts." Sage continued, trying to ignore Roxy's interruptions.
"Gone before we even made it here."
"Fine Roxy, you're right we have no food. Now what's this brilliant plan of yours.”?
"It's simple really, we hunt."
For a few moments Sage didn't say anything. Instead, he leaned back in his chair and seemed to relax. "That actually is a brilliant plan, except for we have never been hunting before."
"How hard can it be? We've shot plenty of those zombies, it can't be much different."
"Where would we go?"
"I don't know we'd have to find somewhere, but that can't be too hard."
"True, we can go tomorrow. Today, I just want to..." His last words faded as he drifted off to sleep.
January 20, 2017
As soon as she could Roxy hurried to the car and began to drive. She had to look for him. There was no certainty that he was dead, he could've gone too far again and had to stay at the house they had been at the night Roxy had gotten pregnant. That was where she had decided to check first. It was the only place she could check today; the trip was over four hours one way. She would have to hurry back home to make it back before the sun set. The trip itself was exhausting. She had listened to the CD that was in the stereo of the car twice before she had to turn it down. Her head was pounding and she had to pull over a few times from fear of passing out.
When she finally arrived at the house she bolted from the car. It took her a few minutes to get her shaking fingers to unlock all of the locks on the door and then run up the stairs. The whole time she was screaming his name, but she didn't know if she would even hear if he yelled back.
When she finally made it into the room she was devastated. Sage wasn't there, and there was no sign that he had been. She decided that she could wait a few hours to see if he showed up, but the hours passed quickly. Too soon she was in the car and on her way back to Edmonds.
She barely made it back before sun set. She was about ten minutes away from the house when she saw the first one. It was a female, but Roxy could only tell by the torn fabric that hung over her breasts. The cloth was stained with red and brown. The skin on the left side of her face was mostly gone. The few pieces of skin that were left had turned black. Roxy shivered as she passed her and silently hoped that she wouldn't follow. Thankfully she didn't.
The low fuel light on the dashboard was blinking red and had been for over an hour, but she knew she didn't have time to stop and look for a gas pump that actually worked. She knew that pretty soon the car would stop. She just hoped that she wouldn't have to sprint to the house.
For the next five minutes she drove as fast as she could. More of them were coming out to the streets now, their black eyes following her as she sped past. Still, none of them followed, but that didn't make her feel safe. She was guessing that there were going to be some already on their way to the house. She tried to keep her eyes on the road, but even if her eyes weren't seeing them she could still picture them in her mind. All she could picture was Sage standing among them. His blue eyes now as black as his hair, which would be falling out in clumps. The thought was almost too much to bear. Her eyes had just begun to water when the car sputtered and died.
She only about five minutes away from the house, but that was by car. She didn't know how long it would take her to run there, but she didn't waste any time. She bolted from the car and took off in a sprint. Both Sage and she had done a lot of running since they left their home in Virginia, and so she was in good condition. Or so she thought. For the past three months she had done nothing but sit on the couch, and she was very malnourished. Within minutes she was exhausted. Her legs had begun to give out on her, her heart was racing, and her head was throbbing in time with it. She was just about to slow down, but quickly looked behind her first to see if there were any of them following her.
There were four of them. They weren't moving very quickly, but that could change once the sun had finally set. She was still two blocks away and by now her legs felt like jelly, but she pressed on. As she sprinted around the last corner she could hear the heavy footsteps of the monsters closing in on her. With the last of her energy she made it to the yard. All that stood between her and the house was the three steps and the locked door. She was going to make it, until her foot got caught on the last step and she fell forward.
She rolled onto her back to protect her swollen stomach, and pulled the pistol she had strapped to her waist out of the holster. Six shots. Sage had taken the pistol that used a clip and left her with the revolver, and she knew she wouldn't have time to reload. Six shots for four zombies. She had to make them count.
The first shot entered through the closest zombie's right eye. It staggered forward but fell a few feet short of the first step. Before the first one hit the ground, the second and third bullets had entered the next two monsters. The second kept moving, but Roxy had slowed it down enough to take care of the others. The third dropped instantly, with a hole in the center of its forehead. The fourth took two bullets to drop; one in the chest and the other between the eyes. She had one bullet left to kill the one that she had wounded with the second shot. Before she had time to pull the trigger, the zombie had reached her. Even with the wound the zombie was fast. Its grey hand had grabbed Roxy by the ankle and began to pull. She was paralyzed with fear. Her only thought was to save the child that was growing in her stomach. She kicked with her other foot and it collided with the nose of her attacker. The zombie was stunned, and Roxy used this to her advantage and lined the sights of the pistol to the center of the zombie’s forehead and pulled the trigger.
The strength left the zombies grip and she pulled her ankle free. As quickly as possible she unlocked the door and hurried inside. As she closed the door she saw that at least a dozen of them had reached the lawn. She locked the door and collapsed on the floor.
Before.
The next morning Sage loaded the vehicle with two rifles and a stock pile of ammunition. He handed Roxy a pistol and a holster. Instead of strapping it onto her waist she dropped it in the passenger seat of the truck that they were driving today.
"You really should wear that." Sage said as he strapped the holster to her waist.
"We are getting in the car anyways. Besides, it drags my jeans down." Roxy had always been really skinny, even though she ate like crazy, but because of their lack of nutritional food, she was too small.
"We can look for some clothes today too."
"If we kill something today maybe we can have decent meals and I can gain my weight back."
"Don't get your hopes up, sweetie."
"Well then we better go to a children's store, that's the only place I'll be able to find jeans that fit."
"Isn't that where you shopped before?"
"Funny." Roxy replied sarcastically.
Sage started the truck and began to drive without any true destination. They agreed that they'd only hunt till three, and then they would go look for some clothes. They had driven for an hour before they found a clearing surrounded by forest. Sage suggested that they sit beside a tree at the edge and wait for game. They had been sitting for three hours when Roxy broke the silence.
"Nothing is just going to walk out of the trees and let us shoot it." Her voice startled Sage, whose eyes had been closed for the past hour.
"Well, what else do you want to do?"
"Why don't we go into the woods and actually hunt?" Roxy's voice was thick with attitude. She was exhausted, her head was pounding, and her stomach was aching from hunger. For the past three hours she had day dreamed of sinking her teeth into venison, or anything that didn't come from a can.
"I have a feeling that deer wouldn't be the only thing we found if we went in." As Sage spoke he stood up and stretched. Roxy reached for his hand and stood up too.
"Well, I can't sit here any longer. Let's go someplace else." She picked up Sage's rifle from where it leaned against the tree they had sat beneath and handed it to him.
It was just past noon when Sage started the truck and began to drive again. After another hour of driving, Roxy had given up hope. They were only about forty-five minutes away from their home and they still had two hours left to hunt.
"Let's just go look for clothes." Roxy finally said after another twenty minutes of driving through the wooded area.
Sage didn't reply, but he turned the vehicle around and headed back towards Edmonds. As they entered the small town, Roxy looked solemnly out the window.
Everything was destroyed. All of the houses were deserted, and most had been so for months. Cars lined the street. Many of them had no windows; the glass lay shattered on the ground outside. As Roxy looked at the old stores that used to line the road she tried to imagine what they had sold. Some were easy to tell, with the remnants of their products still lying scattered on the sidewalks. It was obvious that there had been riots before they arrived. People had taken everything they would need for their journey, and then they fled. It was similar in all the towns they had traveled through to get here, but Roxy had never noticed how beautiful this small town used to be.
"Such a shame." She said, almost to herself.
"What?" Sage questioned.
"This place used to be so beautiful. Now it's a disaster."
"Roxy, the whole world used to be beautiful. No one noticed until it wasn't anymore. Now it's just a beautiful mess."
Roxy thought about what he said until they reached the outlet in which they usually found their clothes. The outlet was small. It had only a few stores but most of it had been untouched before they had found it. Except for the grocery store, naturally that was empty. Roxy went into one of the clothing stores and grabbed everything off of the racked marked small. When Sage saw the large pile of clothes she held in her arms he did the same with the clothes on the rack he was at.
After they had managed to get all of their clothes in the truck, they decided to just go back to their house.
"We haven't had any lucky hunting; we should go back now before our luck gets even worse." Sage said as he started the car.
On the way home, Roxy turned up the radio. Of course there were no stations, but they had obtained a stockpile of CDs during the travels. Roxy threw in one of her favorites; a mix-tape with a large variety of songs that Roxy had never heard before they found the CD. She had since memorized the words to every one of the songs and had just begun to sing her favorite when the car slammed into a deer that had tried to sprint across the road.
Sage had tried to stop the truck, but his efforts were pointless. For a few moments they sat in the cab in silence, stunned from the sudden stop. Roxy was the first out; she jogged to the front of the vehicle and stood over the deer. When she saw that it wasn't breathing, she laughed, and Sage gave her a questioning look from the other side of the vehicle.
"Only we would have better luck hunting by driving." Roxy could barely control her laughter while she tried to speak.
"You really need to get more sleep, Roxy." He shook his head as he spoke, and reached his hand in his back pocket for his knife. "Or else you're going to go insane." With that he began to gut the deer.
"What are you doing?" Roxy cried as Sage's knife cut into the deer’s flesh.
"We have to gut it." Sage's attention never left the deer as he spoke.
"How do you know that?" Roxy knew that Sage had never been hunting.
"My Uncle Jeff told me about it once. Remember when we went to Ohio to visit him?"
"Yea, it was a few years ago. For Christmas right?"
"More than a few years actually. I was only ten. But when we got to his house he was skinning a deer and I remember asking him why there was a huge hole in its stomach.” By now he had finished slicing through the deer's flesh and Roxy had to back away because of the stench that followed. ”He told me that you had to gut it, he didn't exactly show me how, but he described it. “Sage reached his hand into the deer, and began to cut. Roxy turned away from the sight, and didn't turn back until she heard him say "That's disgusting."
The pile of intestines and lungs lay on the ground beside the deer, which was now tilted on its side. Sage's arms were covered with blood and hair all the way to his elbows. "Not nearly as neat as Uncle Jeff, but not too bad."
"Sure." Roxy agreed. "Now what?"
"We take it back home and do our best to get the most amount of meat off of it."
"How about you do that and I'll just cook it." Roxy said, still disgusted by the pile of steaming guts lying on the ground.
"Fine. But help me put it in the back."
"Really?" Roxy asked in disbelief but still walked closer the deer.
"Grab its legs." Sage instructed her, and she did. When they picked the deer up a stream of blood gushed out from the opening in its stomach and Roxy almost gagged.
"Just think, tomorrow we will be eating something other than soup." Sage's mention of food pushed Roxy of the edge and she dropped the deer and ran a few steps before puking.
"Jerk" She said when she finished. "Why would you do that?"
Sage didn't answer her, but his smile was enough. "Just help me with this, please?" He gestured to the deer.
"It's not funny. Do it yourself." Roxy said, mostly to comfort herself. After a few minutes, she finally obliged and grabbed the deer by its legs and hoisted it into the truck.
Sage used a water bottle to wash some of the blood off of his arms before getting in the truck. When he opened the door Roxy was waiting impatiently. Her arms were crossed and her face was stern with frustration.
"What's wrong?" Sage asked, already knowing that she was disgusted by what she had just seen.
"Just drive." She said. "I just want to go home."
"You should probably brush your teeth when we get back." He smiled his usual devilish grin. Roxy leaned over and punched him in the arm. Even though she tried to make the punch actually hurt, it didn't. Sage's smile didn't leave his face the entire drive home.
January 23, 2017.
Three full days had gone by since Roxy had seen Sage, and today was number four. She hadn't given up hope completely, but she couldn't go look for him again. The grip that the zombie had had on her ankle left a bruise in the shape of its hand, and now Roxy could barely walk. The swelling had gone down immensely in the past two days, but it still hurt. She couldn't risk being stuck outside and not even being able to run.
Instead she spent the past two days sitting on the couch rereading old books, and eating. She was surprised by the return of her appetite. For three months she wouldn't eat unless she had to, and now she was eating everything that she possibly could. She was on her second bowl of clam chowder when she heard a noise outside the door. Immediately, she reached for the pistol on the end table beside her. It was loaded with six shots, but Roxy had another fifty shells in the pocket of the grey sweatpants she was wearing.
She stood and limped to the door, trying to make the least amount of sound as she could with her swollen ankle. Instead of opening the door and shooting anything that was there, Roxy just listened. The longer she listened the less the noise sounded human. After she was sure that it wasn't human, she decided to open the door, but carefully. When the door opened she saw nothing out of the ordinary. She limped out of the doorway with her pistol ready to fire.
When the dog whimpered she almost shot it. It was a chocolate lab. Roxy only knew that because one of her neighbors had one that looked exactly like it, but larger and better nourished. Roxy had countless days of her childhood outside playing with the dog, and had cried when she passed away shortly after Jessie was born.
The dog was lying on the bottom step, with its right hind leg bent against its body protectively. It made no attempt to snap at Roxy as she limped down the first step and sat down on the next, but the dog shied away from her when she first reached towards him, and so Roxy decided it would be best if she let him come to her.
After a few minutes the dog worked his way toward her slowly. His noise wiggled as he sniffed at her hand. When he didn't back away Roxy gently began to pet his head.
When she noticed how small the dog was, Roxy's heart almost broke. She could see every one of his ribs, and she thought she could wrap her hands around his hips without a problem. Roxy tried to coax the dog into the house, but when the dog stood up Roxy knew that he couldn't make it up the three steps to the doorway. The dog's leg was bloody and there was no way that he could put weight on it. With much effort, Roxy was able to pick the dog up and carry him up the steps. The pain in her ankle was excruciating, but she couldn't leave the dog outside.
When she reached the top of the steps she set him back down and they both limped into the house. The dog quickly lay down on the floor and closed its eyes, and Roxy wished she could do the same. Instead of collapsing on the couch like she wanted to, she walked into the kitchen and grabbed some gauze out of the first aid kit. She also grabbed a bowl and filled it with water before limping back to the living room. When she placed the bowl in front of the dog he woke up and began to drink. While his tongue lapped at the water, Roxy began to wrap the dog's leg with gauze. It wasn't an easy task. As soon as she touched the injured leg the dog snapped at her fingers. She was barely able to pull her fingers away as the dog clenched its teeth together. His upper lip curled back as he growled at her, and so she quickly backed away.
After an hour of waiting she tried again. This time she spoke calmly as she did it. "I'm going to help you." She tried to keep her voice as cheerful as possible as she poured some water onto the dog's bloody hind leg. After she washed the blood off she was able to get a good look at the dogs wound. She assumed that he had broken his leg, and so was surprised to see that the there was no bone showing. It looked as if the dog had been in a fight with something, perhaps another dog. Sage and she had seen packs of wild dogs several times, so it wasn't a surprise that the dog had been injured in a fight.
Roxy had just begun to wrap the dog’s leg when she heard the first shriek. The dog whimpered, but Roxy couldn't tell if it was from the pain in its leg or the fear of the demons who were about to surround the house. The whimpering continued even after she had stopped, and so Roxy tried to comfort him by petting him. After a few minutes Roxy noticed that she was making no difference, and so she limped to the kitchen to make a bowl of soup.
As she opened the can and poured its contents into a pot on the stove the dog limped into the room. She knelt down and the dog licked her face. "It's okay. Are you hungry? Do you want some food?" At the word 'food', the dog’s ears perked up and the gesture made Roxy smile. "I'll make you some soup too." She took out another can of soup and added it to the pot on the stove.
Instead of limping back to the living room, Roxy just sat on the floor beside her new companion and waited for the soup to heat up. She took this time to evaluate the dog’s condition again. Besides from his leg, there were only a few other noticeable problems, the major one being fleas. The dog had been scratching and biting at his fur excessively since Roxy brought him inside; there were even a few spots where his fur was almost completely gone from where the fleas were the worst. Roxy figured that it wouldn't be hard to find some flea medicine in one of the abandoned pharmacies nearby. Most people wouldn't think of taking flea medicine when they were raiding the stores, and even if it was outdated it still would be worth a try.
The dog's weight was also a problem. She could easily make out every one of his ribs and she had no trouble picking the dog up even with her injured ankle. The only way to fix that was to give him food, and with Sage gone that wouldn't be a problem.
When the food was done Roxy poured half of it into a bowl for herself and the other in a larger bowl for the dog. She carefully carried the bowls to the living room and sat the larger on the floor beside the couch. The dog eagerly began to eat, and had finished the bowl before Roxy was half way done. After a few minutes of the dog staring at her with its large brown eyes, Roxy gave in and set the rest of her bowl on the floor.
"Are you happy now?" The dog looked up hopefully at her voice, expecting more food. When he saw that there was no more he laid down. Roxy began to pet his head with one hand and held her stomach protectively with the other. Eventually they both drifted off to sleep.
Before.
That night they cooked half of the venison and the next morning the other half. They couldn't refrigerate it, because there was no electricity, so for the next week that was all they ate. It was delicious, at first, but by the end of the week even Sage was excited for a bowl of soup.
They had developed a routine, in the morning they'd eat breakfast before suiting up in their yellow rain jackets to go take care of the bodies that were scattered around the front yard. They would then clean off in one of the pools in the community. By then it was lunch time, and after lunch they'd either make repairs on the house or find a way to occupy their time inside.
One morning, after washing off in one of the pools, Roxy decided that she didn't want to stick to the same routine.
"It's been two weeks since we hit the deer and all we've done is eaten and burn bodies." She yelled from her room as she changed into clean clothes.
"Well what do you want to do? Go shopping? I think we have enough cash." He replied while walking out of his room and putting on a blue t-shirt.
"Funny." Roxy's voice was thick with sarcasm as she walked into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water from their supply in the closet.
"Well, what do you want me to say? What are we supposed to do with our spare time?"
"I don't know, but there has to be something we can do. I can't even bear to read anymore, and I used to read for hours a day when we had electricity."
"I'm sorry, Roxy. Life isn't the same as it used to be."
"Thank you, Captain Obvious." She leaned backwards over the arm of the couch until she was laying down with her feet hanging over the edge.
"Do you want to go for a drive?" Sage sat down beside her head and began to run his fingers through her hair. “You really need to wash this." He said teasingly.
"My hair is fine." Even though she said it she pulled her hair up into a pony tail “Do you really want to waste gas?"
"Not really, it's getting harder to find. How about a walk?"
"That's a good idea." Roxy rolled off the couch and grabbed her pistol off of the stand where she usually placed it. She grabbed her ammunition out of the drawer and turned back towards Sage, who was strapping his pistol around his waist. "Should we take the rifles too?"
"I think we will be okay without them. Don't you?"
"Yea, we will be okay." She followed Sage out of the door way and knocked her knuckles against the wooden door frame.
"Good idea." Sage said when he heard the knocking. "Better not to test our luck."
They walked for an hour until stumbling upon an old school with a play ground. The school was destroyed. Almost all of the windows were broken, and the grass had grown at least a foot. The playground was in good condition though. Somehow the equipment was still in good condition and instead of grass there was a layer of small pebbles. Roxy stopped in mid-sentence when she saw it, and took off at a dead sprint. When she reached the swings she turned back towards Sage.
"Are you coming or not?" She teased Sage, who couldn't help but to laugh. He hadn't seen Roxy act like this since they were kids, and he couldn't remember the last time she had truly smiled.
They spent three hours on the playground. Roxy wanted to stay longer, but it would've been too dangerous to stay. On their way home Roxy asked Sage if they could do that more often.
"Only if I get to see you smile like that more." He didn't look up as he spoke. Instead, he kept his eyes locked on the crumbling pavement beneath his feet.
"It felt good to have some fun.” Roxy's cheeks were rose colored as she spoke.
"We will have to go more often then. Whenever we don't need to fortify the house we will come."
"Good."
Sage looked up from the ground and at Roxy. It was in that moment that he realized he would do absolutely anything to see her smile.
January 26, 2017.
The sun was shining brightly from its highest point in the sky as Roxy swung her legs back and began to swing. The playground was the same as always, but the school seemed even more haunting than usual. It was a beautiful summer day, and without the school looming over her, Roxy would have been able to believe that she was at her home in Virginia.
She couldn't off ask for a better day. The sun was hot, but the breeze from swinging made her feel comfortable, and she really didn't want to leave. A brown dog was running through the high grass of the school yard at a full sprint, more than likely chasing after some sort of animal that he would never catch.
She swung for hours, until she looked down at her watch and realized that the sun would set in an hour or so, and she had to make it home by then. She slipped on the light jacket she had brought with her and whistled for the dog. Roxy smiled as he bounded out from the tall grass and towards her, his bright pink tongue hanging out of his mouth the entire time. He ran a full circle around her and stopped directly in front of her, his chest rising and falling heavily from the hard running he had done since they came to the playground.
"Time to go home." She said and the dog fell into step directly beside her.
She was happy, and it felt like she had not been this happy in years. But, in the pit of her stomach she felt as if there was something wrong. She just didn't know what.
Time flew on the walk home and before Roxy knew it the sun was setting. It wasn't until then that she noticed the swelling of her stomach. Being pregnant was surprising to her, but she hadn't realized how far along she was. She knew that she should start to run, or at least jog to make it back to the house in time, but her back and feet ached. Instead of running she picked it up to a fast walk.
Suddenly, the world around her darkened. The sun had gone down and she was still a few blocks away from the house. She glanced behind her and saw the silhouette of one of them, and then two, and then three. Before she knew it there were dozens chasing after her. She tried to run, but the bulge in her abdomen prevented her from sprinting at her full potential.
She managed to get the road that their house was on before the first one reached her. She heard its footsteps closing in on her and she reached for the pistol in the holster at her waist. She turned and raised the guns sights on the forehead of the closest. She was about to pull the trigger when she recognized him.
"Sage?" She said, halfheartedly expecting the sound of her voice to stop him. When she realized it wasn't she pulled the trigger and emptied four shots into his chest.
He staggered, but still didn't fall. She had two shots left, but her entire body was trembling so bad she didn't know if she could hit anything.
"Sage, please." She cried out, forgetting all of the others that had to be closing in on her. She only saw his face. The skin was no longer its usual bright color, but replaced with a dull grey. But it was his eyes that frightened Roxy the most. The usual bright blue was now as black as pitch, and surrounded by a sea of bloodshot red. He was still wearing the same clothes that he had left wearing, but they were stained with blood and dirt.
With tears in her eyes she shot again. This time the bullet missed him, but landed in another behind him. Roxy didn't even see it fall to the ground as she emptied her last shot towards Sage. The bullet entered through his left eye, but he didn't stop. Roxy kept pulling the trigger of the pistol but to no avail. She couldn't make her feet move until Sage was upon her. She began to run but Sage had grabbed hold of her wrist. Before she knew what happened she was lying on the ground, and Sage was lying on top of her, blood streaming from the holes in his eyes and chest. Roxy tried to push him away, but as she reached out to push him he grabbed her by her wrist and clenched his teeth on her hand.
When Roxy screamed the dog came running to her the best that he could with his injured leg. Roxy had tears streaming down her cheeks and was drenched in a cold sweat. She buried her face in her hands as the dog paced in front of her and tried several times to get her attention.
It wasn't until the dog barked that she lifted her head. "I'm okay." She said after the dog limped closer to her and licked her elbow. "It was just a bad dream." She kept repeating to herself, as she ran her hand over the dog's back. Eventually the dog walked to the kitchen to get a drink. Roxy was still half-frozen with fear and couldn't seem to make herself stand. When the dog returned, Roxy helped him up onto the couch. She felt more comfortable with him right beside her, and she wasn't planning on getting up today. Even the thought of disposing of the bodies that probably were scattered across the yard made Roxy shiver. She much preferred to have a relaxing day on the couch.
Roxy figured that the dog was probably previously owned, and therefore it must have had a name. She felt as if she was going insane as she sat beside the dog and said as many names as she could think of, hoping for some kind of response from the dog, but she couldn't let herself think about her dream. After a few hours of name-calling she had given up.
"I'll just call you something else then.” She said, and the dog perked its head up.
"Am I getting close?" She asked the dog, and he responded by licking her hand.
"Didn't think so." Roxy realized that talking to the dog like a human was probably a sign of insanity, but she felt that if she didn't talk to someone, or something she would have already lost her mind. It had been a week since Sage had left and she had given up hope that he was returning. Inside she was an emotional mess, but she had managed to keep herself together for the most part.
At night was the worst. After she locked herself in the house and made sure everything was secure she would have to listen to the shrill shrieks of the demons outside and imagine how Sage looked now. The picture haunted her thoughts, and now her dreams.
Roxy began to think about new names for the dog. She realized that it shouldn't be that hard of a decision, but she didn't want to have to retrain the dog with a new name. Her mind wandered to the dog’s reaction earlier, and she realized that she had probably said something close to his real name. Then it hit her.
"Ben." She called and the dog again picked its head up from where had laid it on her leg. "So, I was close." She said, referring to when she said the word then. "So it's settled then. Your name is Ben."
Before.
For the next few weeks they tried to avert from their normal schedule, but at least twice a week Roxy made Sage go to the playground. It was the only place that she truly felt happy. She could feel free in a world where she was trapped. Sage didn't really understand how Roxy could just forget about all that was going on around them. She would swing as high as she could and close her eyes. Sage would feel the wind as she swung her legs out and glided past him as he sat on the swing beside her and wonder how she could be so carefree. He was always glancing around them. Waiting for someone to sneak up from behind and kill them both or steal Roxy's gun from where it lay on the ground.
One day he decided to talk to Roxy about how they should be more careful when they were at the playground, particularly how she shouldn't leave her gun on the ground.
"Why does it matter? It would take me less than three seconds to grab it, and you have yours. It's not like anyone is around.
No one will steal it." She said with a matter-of-fact tone when he brought it up on their way home.
"But what happens if someone does? What if someone comes to town and tries to hurt us." Sage argued.
"The chances of that are a million to one."
"The chances of a zombie apocalypse were a million to one." Sage stopped walking and Roxy turned to face him a few feet ahead.
"Fine, Sage, you're right. I'll keep the gun on me from now on." Sage could tell that he had made her upset by the way her voice sounded, and was sure he made her angry by the way she folded her arms against her chest.
"What did I do now?"
"Nothing." She turned and started to walk.
"You're lying." He followed her.
"And you're being over cautious."
"I just want us to be safe."
Roxy stopped and took a step away from him. "Why does it even matter anymore, Sage? We've done everything we can to be safe and frankly I'm sick of it. If we are going to die, then we are going to die. There isn't anything we can do to stop it. I'd much rather spend the rest of my life having fun than die being over cautious. A few months ago you felt the same way."
"A few months ago I was just a teenager living with my parents, but things changed Roxy. I watched my parents kill each other. I looked into the black eyes of your family and I've been running ever since. We have been running, and we are going to have to run for the rest of our lives."
"You're wrong Sage. We don't have to run anymore. We've figured it out. We have food, we have a secure home. We have a system. We are safe." By now Roxy's voice was close to a yell and Sage's matched hers.
"We don't have it figured out yet. If we had it figured out we wouldn't have to burn the bodies every morning. We wouldn't have to worry about not making it home before sun set. If we had everything figured out we wouldn't have to carry around guns. "
"I'm not arguing about this." Roxy turned and began walking again. This time Sage stayed where he stood.
"If you're so unhappy with what we have why don't you just leave, Roxy?" Sage kept his voice low, but she still heard him.
Roxy turned and stared at him, speechless. When she didn't say anything Sage took a step towards her.
"Roxy I didn't mean it--"
"Stop, Sage. Stay away from me. I'll leave in the morning." Her eyes were beginning to water, but she held the tears back. Sage didn't know what to do, so when she turned and began to run he stood there and watched.
Eventually he realized that the sun was going to set soon, so he began to jog back to the house. When he closed the door he could see the first of them slowly making its way down the street.
"Roxy?" He called after secured the door, but of course she didn't answer. For a moment, Sage didn't think she made it home, but then he noticed that the door to her room was shut. He walked over to it and knocked. When she didn't say anything he tried to open the door but it was locked.
"At least let me know you're here and not out there getting torn apart." He said after knocking once more.
"Go away." Was her only reply.
Sage stood outside the door and apologized repetitively for several more minutes, but he couldn't get any more response from her. Eventually he gave up and went to the couch to read, but wasn't able to stay there long. The shrieks coming from outside the door were making his skin crawl, and so he couldn't focus on the book. After giving up on trying to focus on reading, he went back to Roxy's door.
"Are you going to eat?" He asked, but again there was no response. Feeling guilty, Sage went to the kitchen and made two cans of chicken noodle soup. He carried Roxy's bowl to her door and set it on the floor. "You don't have to talk to me, but at least you can eat." He didn't even wait for a response this time; instead he walked to the living room and solemnly ate his portion of the soup, while listening for the sound of Roxy's door opening.
Even after an hour the door hadn't opened, and the soup was still where he had left it. Sage stood outside of the door, contemplating whether or not he should pick up the bowl, when he heard a sound from the other side of the door. At first he thought she was about to say something, but then he realized that she probably didn't know that he was there. Carefully, he pressed his ear up to the door and listened.
It took him a minute to realize that she was crying. With his heart aching, he knocked on the door again. He wasn't expecting a reply and was startled when he heard he voice through the door.
"What do you want?" Her voice was harsh; a mixture of anger and heartbreak.
"To apologize." Sage's voice broke as he spoke.
"I don't accept it."
"Roxy, I didn't mean for it to sound like that. I was just upset that you're not taking out safety seriously." Sage didn't even hear her footsteps before she opened the door.
"Everything we do is serious. Everything," She exclaimed. "And I'm sick of it. I'm sick of being stuck here in this dungeon and listening as they rip each other apart outside our door. I'm sick of burning the bodies every day. I'm sick of eating soup and terrible cooked venison. I want to go back to how things used to be, Sage. We are eighteen; we shouldn't be living like this." By the time Roxy finished ranting tears were running down her cheeks. Sage was speechless. He knew that he should say something, but the words wouldn't come. Instead, he tried to embrace her.
When Roxy realized what he was doing she took a step back, but the expression on Sage's face as he let his arms fall back to his sides made her second guess herself. Before she had time to reach towards him Sage spoke.
"I didn't mean what I said. We both know we would be a mess without each other. I can't have you leave. Can you please forgive me?" Sage's eyes had begun to water, but the tears didn't fall until Roxy wrapped her arms around him.
March 02, 2017.
It was almost two months since Sage had left, and Roxy had completely given up hope on ever seeing him again. Unless, of course, his eyes were black and he was trying to destroy her. She was trying her best to move on, but her stomach had continued to bulge, and it was a constant reminder of what she had lost.
Ben was helping her cope though. After both of their injuries had subsided they made it a routine to go for a walk, but only after the bodies were smoldering in the already dead grass. Sometimes he would want to play catch with a branch he found some place. Some days they would go to the playground, but most of the time Roxy would just walk. Together they had found another school, and even another grocery store that still had some canned goods. Roxy had taken a grocery cart and filled it with whatever was left. She had even found a few boxes of dog treats that she took home for Ben.
Since Sage had taken the better pistol her main goal was to find a replacement, but that wasn't easy. She checked abandoned houses and stores but she couldn't find any weapons at all, which wasn't truly surprising. Supplies were getting harder and harder to find, and Roxy knew she had to go to a different town if she wanted to restock. So the day before she had taken one of their larger vehicles, a Ford F150, out of the garage a few houses down and took it to every gas station in town to try to fill it up. Eventually the fuel gauge on the truck read full, but Roxy knew that she’d have to pick up as much gas as possible on her travels.
She skipped burning the bodies that morning. Instead, she filled the bed of the truck with fuel cans and together she and Ben set off for Seattle.
The trip was less than twenty miles, but it still took Roxy almost forty-five minutes because she was trying to stay off of all the main roads, just in case. The debris that was scattered across the roads was unbelievable. Vehicles were scattered across the roadways, some with the doors still open. There were even a few times that Roxy had to get out and move a car out of the center of the roadway. Most of the vehicles still had keys in the ignition, so it made for easy work.
Her hands had begun to sweat as she drove. She had always hated to go to Seattle. The large skyscrapers made her feel small and vulnerable. Sage and her had run into some of the citizen who still lived there, both dead and alive, and it scared her to be alone, but there were some good things about Seattle. Most importantly there were still a lot of supplies left, and there were some people who would be willing to trade for goods, but only if she found the right people.
Part of Roxy wanted to just stay with a group in Seattle, but she couldn't find it in herself to leave her home. She had tried to not think about it though. She figured she would face that decision when it came.
Roxy sped around the city looking for any shops that looked promising, but there weren't many. At noon the only supplies she had found were a couple dozen cans of soup and ten packets of ramen noodles that were hidden in the back of an old gas station, which unfortunately, had no gas. She didn't give up though, and she drove around the city for another two hours stopping at various places she thought there would be supplies.
As she was driving she saw a group of people walking down the sidewalk. In their hands were bags, obviously filled with some kind of useful supplies, and large weapons hung off of straps on their soldiers. At first Roxy thought that there were only four of them, but after she stopped the truck and slowly walked towards them with her hands clearly insight she noticed two small children hiding behind the only women in the group.
"Friend or foe?" The largest of the men said with his hand protectively over his weapon, when Roxy stopped about 15 yards away. He was certainly the eldest of them, but by the look of his muscles he was also the strongest. His hair was salt-and-pepper colored and he wore a dark pair of blue jeans and an unbuttoned dress shirt that was stained a permanent dirt color. Under his shirt Roxy could see his chest was covered with deep purple scars as was his arms.
"Friend." Roxy replied, her heart racing. It had been a choice to get out of the vehicle, but she figured that these guys weren't alone and if she didn't stop one of them would try to stop her later.
"What do you want?" The man that spoke was built similarly to the first but his hair was a deep brown and hung past his ears. Instead of a dirty dress shirt he wore a faded black muscle shirt.
"I..." Her thoughts left her and her hands began to tremble slightly. “I just need some...” Before she could finish the women interrupted her.
"There's no need to be afraid, sweetheart. We won't hurt you." The woman was older. Roxy assumed that she was in her mid-forties. Her hair was blonde and she had a mother-like quality about her. She made Roxy feel comfortable but her peers had the opposite effect on her.
"Kate, she could kill us." The brunette man said in a rough voice.
"It's four against one. She was the one who came to us. Obviously she isn't stupid, that's clear just because she is alive. She wants help, Rick. Look at her stomach. She's pregnant." The women's voice was comforting and she gave Roxy a reassuring smile.
“My name is Roxy Coleman, and all I want is supplies. I'd be willing to trade. I brought some clothes. “Roxy blurted out.
"Are you alone?" The women, Kate, asked she stepped towards her.
"Yes." Roxy replied, tentatively.
"How far along are you?" Kate kept walking and Roxy didn't know whether to turn and run away from her or towards her.
"A little over four months."
"Is he gone?" By now, Kate was within an arms reach and Roxy took a step back.
"No, he's not. He's on the other side of town. He knows where I'm at and we have a rendezvous point just outside of the city. “Roxy didn't know why she lied, but she didn't feel like she could tell the truth. While the women made her feel somewhat comfortable, the men made her feel the complete opposite.
"Well where are you guys living?" The women asked her as she took a step away, obviously aware that Roxy didn't like her closeness.
Roxy didn't reply. She couldn't think of a place fast enough and didn't want to give up the true location of her home.
"She isn't going to tell us, Kate." The man named Rick said. "She is too smart for that."
There was a long pause and for a moment Roxy thought about running. Just when she went to take her first step Rick spoke.
"Josh, take Keith and the children and go get some supplies. Get anything we can spare. “The two other men looked at her questioningly before taking the two small children by the hands and walking away. Before they got too far Rick spoke again. 'Miss, can we take a look at what you've got?"
"Of course. They're in the truck. “Roxy cautiously turned towards the car. She didn't hear Rick approaching until he spoke.
"Need some help?" His voice startled Roxy but she agreed to let him help with some of the boxes.
In the end Josh and Keith came back with two boxes of non-perishable goods, and one of them had a bag full of chips. Roxy's mouth almost started to water when she saw the different variety of soups and when Rick showed her a box of crackers she almost cried. They only took one box of clothes, and it was mostly jeans. Roxy knew that the trade wasn't fair, and so she thanked them for their generosity several times as they helped her load the boxes into the truck.
As the men carried the boxes for her, Kate was admiring Ben. "He's a beautiful dog. Have you had him the entire time?" She threw a stick that she had found laying on the road and the dog chased after it.
"No. He showed up a few weeks ago." When Ben returned he was panting heavily and his pink tongue was hanging from the left side of his mouth.
"You're lucky. To have someone to be with you. “Roxy didn't know if she met the dog or the pretend person she had waiting for her.
"You have company too." She replied, referring to Keith, Rick, Josh, and the two children. Roxy wasn't sure if there were more than the six she had encountered with, but she didn't feel comfortable asking.
"Sometimes there are too many of us, and that can make for bad company." Kate's voice trailed off as the men approached, but she had answered Roxy's unanswered question.
"Thank you so much," She said as she shook their all of their hands. "I really appreciate it." As her hand slipped into Josh's she was surprised to feel a piece of paper against his palm. Josh seemed to be similar in age to her, but he seemed really shy. He hadn't said any thing to her or the others since they first met, and so when she felt the paper in her hand she was surprised.
She hid it well though; she closed her hand and then slid the paper into her back pocket as she climbed into the car. She thanked them one more time before she drove away.
She didn't go far though. After a block she stopped the car and pulled the paper from her pocket
1959 Northeast Pacific Street... We are here to help. The writing was faint and looked as if it had been written in a hurry. Roxy parked the car and began to think.
If she went there she would be safe, but it would mean giving up all hope of seeing Sage again. Kate had said that there were many people there, and that would mean more of a struggle for food, but none of them seemed to be starving. She could always bring her own food and just hide it, in case they ran out she could take her supply and leave, but that was dangerous too.
Roxy had her head in her hands when Ben started barking from the passenger seat. At first she thought he was barking at her, but then she realized that the bark was more ferocious than usual. Roxy slowly turned her hand and found herself staring at the end of a small pistol
"Get out, and shut that dog up." The man behind the gun said in a rough voice.
"Look, we can work something out." Roxy said as calmly as she could.
"Yea, we can. You can get out of the car and take you're stupid dog with you." Roxy was surprised to see that the man was young. He was wearing a sweater, and a pair of ripped khaki shorts that Roxy assumed he had since the start. The smell of him said that he hadn't washed in a while either.
"There has to be another way. Take my supplies, leave me the car. “She felt her offer was reasonable, but obviously he didn't. She heard him pull the hammer back on the gun. "Okay. I'll get out. “Roxy opened the door of the truck and slowly exited it, grabbing her back pack that held her pistol on the way.”Come on, Ben." She called after she had taken a few steps away.
The dog followed her out of the car and Roxy commanded that he sit beside her. "Sir, please don't take the truck. My home is too far to make on foot before dark. Take all my supplies, but please leave me the truck." Roxy was almost begging now and tears began to form in her eyes as she spoke.
"Sorry sweetheart, but I need to save my life too." To Roxy his words meant nothing. “Is there anything useful in the backpack?" He asked but Roxy didn't hear him.
Instead she was focusing on Kate and Keith who had just turned a corner and emerged on the street. They were walking away from them, oblivious to her situation but she knew that if she was able to capture their attention they would come to her aid.
"Sweetheart, are you listening?" The man had taken two steps towards her and raised his voice. Roxy knew that she couldn't outrun him. He was about six inches taller than her and her body hadn't been the same since the start of the pregnancy.
"There's nothing in the bag except for a couple boxes of granola bars." Her voice sounded as if it was coming from a different person. Her entire focus was on the two figures that were slowly beginning to shrink away from her.
"Hand them over, you can keep the bag and one box. I can't leave you here with any food." It wasn't until then that the man lowered the gun.
Roxy set the bag on the ground and bent down to unzip it. It was then that the idea came to her and she whispered "Speak." As loudly as she dared towards Ben. Roxy's heart sunk when no noise came from the dog, but as she slowly drew out the pistol from her bag she repeated the word and the dog did as she asked.
The man started to walk towards her, obviously aware that something was amiss, but Roxy could see the two figures down the street pause. For a moment it seemed as if they were arguing, and then they were running towards her, with Kate in the lead.
"I asked you to shut that dog up!" The man's hand seemed to appear out of no where and when it made contact with Roxy's cheek she felt as if she was going to pass out.
"Help me!" She screamed and was rewarded with what felt like a kick to her stomach, and another blow to the head. It was then that she blacked out.
Before.
Sage was the one who thought it was a good idea to make other safe houses around the area, but it was Roxy who suggested Abbotsford. Crossing the Canadian border was no longer a problem, because no one was there to guard it. The city was close enough to Vancouver that they could go there for supplies too.
Instead of picking a house to reinforce they decided to just try an apartment. With the narrow staircases and the high elevation it would be harder for great numbers of them to make it up the stairs and therefore easier to reinforce. There had to be a gas stove but they had given up hope of finding someplace with running water. The apartment complex they chose had its own parking garage under the building. It wasn't as convenient as several different garages spread across the neighbor hood but Sage believed that it would work just as well.
They both drove separate trucks to Abbotsford because all the supplies plus the food they would need wouldn't fit into one truck bed. When they got there they realized that they may have not thought about their plan enough. Most of the supplies were too large or heavy to carry by themselves, and without electric they would have to carry it all up the stairs. They spent two hours carrying everything up to the apartment they had chosen on the third floor. By then it was almost two. Sage suggested just fortify the entrance way and working through the night, and Roxy couldn't argue. They had just finished barricading the door when they heard the first of them. Roxy could see them starting to wander the street as she started to cover the windows. They didn't think that they could climb the walls and get in through the windows but they didn't want to chance it. There were only four windows throughout the apartment, one in each bedroom and two in the living area, and within an hour they were all covered with several layers of wood and the cement.
"We are getting good at this." Roxy joked as Sage walked out from one bedroom after completing the last window. "We should start a business."
"Oh, that's a brilliant idea. We can name it S&R's home improvement and our slogan could be, 'Get to us before they get to you!' ". Sage was full of energy, but Roxy was exhausted from all the work they had done.
"I can even find some paint" She yawned "and make us an advertisement somewhere in Seattle."
"Brilliant. None of them will want to mess with S&R's sturdy handiwork." It was just then that the first one slammed into the layers of wood that protected the door. The door frame didn't even move, but that didn't surprise them. They had stacked the wood against the door in three layers, just like they had at their home in Edmonds. Beneath those three layers was a thick sheet of steel that they had secured to the frame. There was no way they would get into the house.
"At least they're quieter here." Roxy said after a few minutes of listening to their snarls.
"There's less than usual. They all can't get up the stairs, and that's not necessarily a good thing. If they can't get up the stairway that means they're going to be angry. Aggression means that more will die and that means we will have to burn more in the morning. "
"True.” She paused. "Speaking of morning I'm going to find a place in the kitchen for the food so we can leave earlier." She stood up and disappeared around the corner.
Sage watched her go and waited a minute until he got up to follow her. When he walked into the kitchen she was sitting on the floor surrounded by a sea of cans. He stood there for a moment before she noticed him. When she did she stopped and began to pull her hair up off of her neck.
"Coming to help?" She asked as she pulled the black hair-tie off her wrist and worked into her hair. Even tied up her hair hung to the center of her back. Sage liked it, but it made her look entirely different than she had before they left her home in Virginia.
It didn't take them long to get all of food put away. They hadn't brought much, just enough to survive for about a week if need be, but Roxy had to have everything in order. They had to have everything organized by brand and then by type. Sage didn't understand why they couldn't just throw everything in the cupboard, but he knew better than to argue with her.
Neither of them slept very well that night. As the hours grew later it seemed as if the zombies outside grew more aggravated. The dying ones shrieked and growled almost obnoxiously throughout the night, and the surviving ones seemed to be bouncing off the walls causing an uneven rhythm accented with the sound of bones breaking.
Roxy had managed to drift off to sleep at some point and she woke to the sound of Sage washing off. When she opened her eyes she saw that he had already went outside to clean up the mess of bodies.
"How many were there?" Roxy groggily asked.
"Only about 15 were dead. One of them was still alive, but just barely. “Sage replied as he was putting a clean shirt on.
"Are you burning them?"
"Yea. I threw the bodies out one of the windows on the lower floor. The smell is terrible outside but I guess in here it's barely noticeable."
"I can't even smell it."
"Lucky," Sage ran his fingers through his wet hair. “it seems to be permanently stuck in my nose."
Roxy grabbed two cans out of the cupboard and poured them into a pot on the stove. Within minutes the entire apartment smelled of vegetable beef soup. Sage, who was relaxing on the couch, yelled from the living room. "It smells delicious, and I'm starving."
"I would've helped you this morning.' Roxy yelled back. "You should've woken me, and then you wouldn't be so hungry and tired."
"You looked too peaceful to wake up."
"No one could be peacefully sleeping with the noise coming from outside last night." Roxy poured the contents of the pot into two bowls and walked them into the living room
"That was terrible. “Sage agreed as he sat up and carefully took one bowl from Roxy. He had three spoonfuls before Roxy even sat down.
"We can leave after we eat." Roxy said as she stirred her soup.
Sage's only reply was a nod. He finished his food way before Roxy did, and so Roxy asked him to take their belongings back to the vehicles. By the time he returned Roxy had cleaned the dishes with a bottle of water and was sliding her feet into her sneakers.
"We're ready." She said, and followed Sage down the flights of stairs to the parking garage.
They each drove separately again. Sage took the lead and Roxy followed him absentmindedly. They were almost to the border when Roxy almost slammed into the rear-end of Sage's truck, which had stopped unexpectedly. Roxy rolled down her window and leaned her head out of it. Just as she did she saw Sage open the car door and walk out with his hands held above his head. She didn't have to see any more to know that they were surrounded.
March 4, 2016.
She was running again. She was so sick of running, and so sick of always being tired. They were chasing her again but this time she was thinking about just giving up and letting them tear her apart. It would only hurt for a minute. They didn't understand the concept of torture, all they understood was hunger, anger, and aggression.
Everything she had was lost. Everyone she loved was gone. Sage, Mom, Jessie, Dad, everyone. Either dead or turned into some demon monster that had no feelings.
Maybe she wouldn't die though. There was always a chance that she could turn into one of them. She didn't understand how it worked. Sage and her had never figured it out, but she didn't want to be one of them. That was the only thing that kept her running.
There was no destination. She no longer had a home. Her first home was across the country and she didn't know how to get to the house in Edmonds or the apartment in Abbotsford. Everything was dark, except for one faint, yellow light that she was running towards.
She would never make it though. No matter how fast she ran they were faster and she could hear them catching up already. A thousand feet drumming against the cement.
But she kept running, until the first one grabbed her ankle and she fell forward to the ground. She expected to die then, but she didn't. She rolled over and began to kick at the mangled body clutching her, but it was no use. There were more now. Thousands of them were surrounding her. Their black eyes staring at her waiting to take a bite of her flesh.
One of them screamed. It was so loud and so ear-piercing that they all stopped. The hands let go of her and its black eyes locked on something behind her head. She turned, and was staring directly at the corpse of her best friend. She had gotten used to seeing him as a monster and now the sight didn't intimidate her as much as it used to.
He leaned forward until his face was just inches from her own. Her eyes were locked on the black circles that had replaced the blue that she had become so attached to.
"Do it." She whispered.
When he didn't make a move Roxy reached her hand up to his cheek. He turned his head towards her hand and she could feel the warmth of his breath against her finger tips.
"You remember me." Her realization came as a shock, but was nothing compared to how she felt when he opened his mouth and ran his black tongue against her fingers.
"Roxy" He mumbled into her hand. "Roxy"
"Roxy." The voice wasn't Sage's, but it was one that she recognized.
"Kate." She replied as she felt something rough and wet against her fingertips. She jerked away immediately, and expected to see his black pits staring back at her. Instead she saw Kate with a apologetic yet surprised look on her face. Roxy saw the wet wash cloth in her hands and realized that Kate was washing her skin.
"Easy." Kate said. "You're bruised up pretty badly."
Tears started to form in her eyes as she reached down for her stomach. Part of her expected her stomach to be flat again, and she was surprised when she felt the small bump.
"It's alive. Our doctors had to double check and they gave you some medication to help, but they kept her alive." Kate put her hand beside Roxy's and gave a small pat. "You've got three broken ribs. This explains why it hurts to sit up so badly.”
"Doctors? You have doctors here?" It wasn't until then that Roxy noticed the dim lights shinning above her. "Electric too?"
"We are very well off here. There are over a hundred of us here and there are four doctors and six nurses. We have some really smart people here, which explains the electric."
"Wait. “Roxy grabbed Kate's hand.”You said she."
"What?" Kate sat down a chair beside Roxy's bed that she hadn't noticed before.
"You said she when you were talking about the baby. You can't know what gender it is." Roxy rubbed her stomach again.
"Actually we can. We did an ultra sound. Sorry if you wanted it to be a surprise. I didn't know."
"No, it's fine. “Tears started to fall down Roxy's cheeks again.”I'm having a baby girl." She had goose bumps forming on her arms and her heart began to ache for Sage.
"We went to look for the father. We had people out for two days and we asked everyone we saw, but no one could find him." Kate said as if she could read Roxy's mind.
"He's dead." Roxy confessed. "Well, I think he's dead. He left one day and never came home."
The color in Kate's cheeks drained from her face instantly. "Roxy, I'm so sorry. I know how it feels to-"
"We all know how it feels to lose someone. Everyone has lost everything." Roxy interrupted. She didn't know if she could deal with so many emotions at once and just wanted to change subject.
"Well, there are other communities nearby. We keep contact with most of them. I'll see if anyone has seen him. Can you describe him for me?"
"His name is Sage. He is tall, black hair, blue eyes, and skinny, but everyone is skinny. “Roxy tried to sit up again and winced in pain.”Is there anything for the pain?" She asked as she relaxed back against the white sheets.
"Yea, I'll go get Linda, she will want to talk to you anyways. I'll tell some people about Sage too." She said as she walked out of the room.
"He's dead." Roxy whispered to herself.
It didn't take long for Linda to enter the room, but while Roxy waited she noticed that she was actually in a hospital room. She even had a thin white hospital gown on, but it wasn't the gown or the room that held her attention. She couldn't help but to stare at the dim lights above her. It had been almost a year since she had been in a room lighted by anything except a flashlight, and the sight was mesmerizing for her. It wasn't until she noticed Linda standing in the corner of the room that she focused on something else.
Linda was a small, middle aged woman with long dark brown hair that was tied up in a bun on the back of her head. On her nose was a pair of small, square glasses that looked a little lopsided. Everything about her reminded Roxy of a doctor except for her clothes. She was wearing a pair of dark grey sweatpants that were too big for her and a navy blue shirt that made her blue eyes look even brighter.
"Roxy, it's good to see you awake." She said as she sat down a glass of water on the table, and then sat in the chair beside the bed. "I'm Linda Connors, and I've been taking care of you for the past two days. "
"Are you sure it's a girl?" Roxy blurted out, unable to be patient.
"Yes I'm sure it's a girl," Linda laughed. "and we will talk about the baby in a minute. First off, let’s get you comfortable." She held out her hand and in her palm were three small pills, which Roxy eyed conspicuously.
"They're just Advil. They’re to help with the pain." She handed Roxy the glass and the pills and she swallowed them eagerly.
"There," Kate said. "You should feel a bit better soon."
"Thank you." Roxy replied.
"The ribs are going to hurt for a while. I'm sure Kate told you that he broke some of them. It was good he kicked you in the rib cage and not the stomach though." She put her hand on Roxy's stomach. "She is healthy, actually very healthy."
Roxy smiled. "Thank you so much, Doctor."
"Call me Linda." She replied. "I have some other people I have to check on. If the pain gets too difficult just let someone know. Kate will probably be here soon after I leave. She hasn't left your side since you got here. "
"Really?" That surprised Roxy; she would have thought the Kate would have had better things to do than sit beside a stranger's bed.
"Really." Linda confirmed. "She has a thing for children. She lost her own when all of this started. Since then she has been a mother to all of the children here. It doesn't surprise me that she wanted to make sure you and the child were fine."
"Kate has a kind heart."
"She is one of a kind. If you need anything let her know." Linda squeezed Roxy's hand before she opened the white door and walked out of the room.
Roxy was almost asleep again the door opened again. She was expecting Kate, and was surprised when she saw Josh.
"Did I wake you?" He asked softly. His short, light hair almost blended in with the white light and the white walls. His eyes were a deep green, and something about them made Roxy feel instantly safe.
"No, I was up. Linda just left a few minutes ago, and the bed isn't that comfortable." Roxy tried to push herself back into a sitting position but the pain was just too much.
"Better get used to it. None of the beds here are comfortable." Josh laughed and Roxy couldn't help but to smile.
"Thank you for the directions.” She said. "I probably would have come regardless of this." She gestured to her rib cage.
"We shouldn't have left you. We all knew you were lying about meeting up with someone. Rick should've talked you into coming with us." He said in the chair where Linda and Kate were before.
"Ben and I would have been fine. We've been alone for about two months now." It wasn't until she said his name that she remembered Ben. She was just about to ask Josh where he was when he spoke.
"Ben is fine. He's getting along very well with everyone, especially the children. He spent the evening trying to get in here, but we were all so afraid he would have jumped on the bed."
"Oh. Thank God." She breathed a sigh of relief. Everything was okay. She was having a baby girl and her dog was fine. "What exactly happened?"
"Well how much do you remember?"
"Until he knocked me out."
"Oh, well you didn't notice Keith and me behind you. We actually reached him just as he kicked you, but we weren't fast enough. We couldn't really see what was going on. At first we thought you had met up with the guy you were talking about, but we came running as soon as we figured out what was going on. Keith tried to take him down, with the help of Ben, while I tried to get you to wake up. They fought for a while, but as soon as Rick and Kate reached us everything calmed down. "
"Did you. . . “Roxy couldn't make herself ask.
"Kill him? No, but he probably is dead by now. We had to tie his hands, but we left him a knife nearby so he could get away when he came to. We couldn't risk him following us."
"Why not? It was just one person."
"In the city, where there is one, there are dozens. "
Roxy jumped a little when Kate opened the door. The pain from the movement almost made Roxy cry but she held herself together.
Kate obviously noticed the pain and went straight for a cabinet that Roxy hadn't noticed before. She withdrew a bottle and poured out to red pills into her hand.
"Linda just gave me some." Roxy said as Kate held out her hand.
"You can have more. You're in pain, and we have plenty."
Roxy's ribs were aching, so she didn't argue before she washed down the two pills with some water. "Thank you."
"You're welcome. “She replied as she sat on the edge of her bed.”Now, I know you're in a lot of pain, but Linda said that if you're up for it you should try to take a walk. Josh and I would help you get up, and walk you to the cafeteria so you can get some food. "
The thought of standing up seemed impossible to Roxy, but she didn't want to seem weaker than she already did.”Okay, let’s get me up then."
Getting her out of bed was hell. The pain made her move slowly, but she the slower she went the longer it would hurt. Eventually the got her into a sitting position, but she asked them to wait so she could catch her breath.
"I think I just want to stand up quickly. "
"I think that would be best." Kate voiced. "If you pass out from the pain at least Josh and I can catch you."
Roxy didn't want to think about passing out. "Okay, I'm as ready as I'm ever going to be." She grabbed Kate's hands as Josh carefully steady her by her hips.
"Ready?" Kate asked.
"Yes." Her ribs burned as Josh picked her up into a standing position. Luckily, she didn't pass out, but Kate's hands were bright red from the pressure she had applied.
"Walking is going to hurt," Josh said. "but if you don't walk the recovery is going to take longer. I'll keep a hand on your hip if want me to help steady you."
"Yes, please." Roxy said breathlessly.
Josh was right. The pain was very severe, especially during the first few steps, but after she had a steady pace the stabbing pain reduced to an obnoxious throbbing.
As they walked, Kate and Josh told her what to expect. She could hardly believe that there were over two hundred people living in this building. As they walked down the maze of hallways they didn't see anyone.
"It's lunch time," Josh explained. "and the people who aren't eating right now are out looking for more supplies. It gets more crowded during the evening. "
"We have people here from every where." Kate continued "Of course there are more of us that are actually from Washington, but we have a few people from Nevada and Texas, a bunch of people from California, and even a couple from New York."
"I'm from just outside of Richmond."
"In Virginia?" Josh asked. "What brought you way out here?"
"Sage and I were traveling all over when it all started. We didn't know where to go. Finally we just decided to stop. There was no use running anymore."
"Understandable. When it started a lot of people tried to run."
The rounded another corner and Roxy's pain tripled when she saw the flight of stairs.
"We won’t make you walk down them. Josh will carry you."
"How many stairs are there?" Roxy asked as Josh tried to carefully pick her up.
"Sorry." His apology was sincere, but the pain still made her cry out. "There are two flights, but I'll go down them as smoothly as I can.”
By the bottom of the stairs Roxy had drenched his shoulder with tears. Her thoughts of being strong had dissipated when the pain began, but she was able to keep herself from crying out again.
"We are at the bottom." He informed her. "I can keep carrying you. There are a few empty rooms down here if you want to lie down for a few minutes."
Roxy nodded her head and she felt Josh start moving again.
"Josh," Kate called. "I'm going to go into the lunch room and get her a plate."
"Okay." Josh called back.
She didn't feel Josh open the door to the room, because he did it so smoothly. She did, however, feel as he started to lower her onto a bed. Thankfully, he did it quickly, and the pain was subsiding quickly.
"I'm sorry, for crying all over you." She could see the wet mark her tears had left on his shirt.
"Don't be sorry. I know how it feels to have bruised ribs, and I couldn't imagine how badly it hurts to have broken ones."
"Are you sure it was a good idea to have me moving?" She closed her eyes as she talked.
"Yea. The bones have all been set. Believe it or not we still have the technology that we did before; actually we have advanced in some things. It's like the Doctors and Scientists decided to actually start doing something." Josh smiled and Roxy noticed the dimple on his right cheek for the first time.
"Do you guys have contact with other people?"
"Just people in the area," Josh replied. "There are some scientists from California who are locked up in the lab and doing research all the time. Every once in a while we send someone there to see what they've developed."
"Wow." Roxy was astonished. "How can you guys be living like nothing happened?"
"We aren't. If we were living like nothing happened we wouldn't have to carry these," He gestured to the holster on his hip that held a pistol Roxy hadn't noticed before. "Or stay inside after the sun goes down, or build barriers to keep them out. "
"But you're living better than I was, and you're living better than everyone else I've ever encountered." Roxy couldn't help but to think of the home she had left behind. The windows were covered with wood that was stained permanently with a thick layer of blood, and the grass in front of the house was destroyed from the constant burning of the creatures that tried to kill them every night. Compared to her, they were all living like royalty.
"We take in everyone we can. It's not like we turn people away from us."
"Oh, I wasn't making that point. I'm just thinking that if you can live like this why can't everyone else?"
"A lot of people don't want to, Roxy. We have had people die when they tried to convince other to join us. "
Roxy didn't know how to reply, but luckily Kate opened the door with a tray in her hands.
"Beef and potatoes with a side of corn." Kate said as she sat the tray across Roxy's lap.
"Where did you get all this?" Roxy already had the first spoonful of potatoes at her lips.
"We actually have a farm." Kate explained. "It's about thirty miles outside of the city, but it's where we grow the potatoes and corn. The meat is actual cow too, but we have to keep them some place else or else they're slaughtered by the morning."
"The farm was my Uncle Tim's. During my childhood I would go there for the summer and help him out. One day I came home and my parents were gone, so I stayed there alone for a few days before deciding to drive to his farm. Rick found me that day after I ran my car into a fire hydrant," Roxy had to suppress a laugh and Josh shot her a glare before he continued. "The next day I explained how we needed to go check on Tim, and Rick was more than happy to take me. When we got there the house was surrounded with bodies, and we thought for sure that Tim's was among them. We found him in the upper story of his barn, with his entire armory and ammo. It was a rather gruesome but entertaining sight. It took both of us to get him to let go of the gun, but eventually he came here with us. He saved us with that farm, when I got here we were eating stale bread and crackers."
"I'll have to meet him, because this meal is delicious." She had already finished half of the plate.
"You will." Kate replied. You'll have to meet everyone else too."
After Roxy finished her meal she was exhausted. So when Kate asked her if she wanted to go for another walk she quickly declined. "The trip down the steps exhausted me." She explained. "I think I just want to sleep."
Kate agreed that sleep was probably better than trying to walk some more, and that someone would come in to check on her periodically. Roxy smiled and thanked both of them for their hospitality, but he was asleep before Josh closed the door.
Before.
"Get out of the vehicle." Roxy didn't have to look to know that there was a barrel being pointed at her temple. The door opened and she slid out of the seat and onto the pavement with her fingers entwined behind her head. She wasn't able to turn around as rough hands grabbed at the holster around her waist and forced her against the vehicle. The hands left her waist and moved to secure her against the truck, but she knew within seconds her weapon was gone.
"We don't want any trouble." Roxy spoke quietly. “We just are trying to get home. Take our supplies. There are more in Sage's truck. Please, just leave us one vehicle and we will be out of your way and never come back." She could see that Sage was having slightly worse luck than her. He wasn't pinned against the truck, but there was a gun still pointed at his temple.
"Roxy?" At first she thought it was Sage who had spoken, but the sound came from the person who had he up against the truck.
"Yes?" Roxy was grateful that her attacker had loosened his grip on her, but she was still uncomfortable leaning up against the sun-cooked side of the black truck.
"Dad, I know her." The voice seemed familiar, but she couldn't figure out his name without looking at his face.
"Tony!" His voice was full of hope, but still Roxy didn't know who her attacker was.
"I don't care if you knew them," The man who spoke had a deep voice, and Roxy figured he must be Mike. "We don't know anyone anymore. We can't trust anyone."
"They went to school with me, Dad. We can't hurt them" Suddenly Roxy realized who the man behind her was. Tony Johnson had been in several classes with Roxy, but they weren't really friends. Roxy suddenly remembered that Tony had lived only with his mother. His father had an affair and moved to Canada with some women half of his age. Roxy remembered hearing that Tony's mother had passed away after having the IGD and he had to move with his father after the funeral.
Roxy attended the funeral with her parents, because Roxy's mother had been close friends with Mrs. Johnson in high school. She remembered giving Tony a hug and shaking his father's hand. Suddenly her hopes of getting out of there alive sky rocketed.
"Mr. Johnson I was at your former wife's funeral." Roxy tried to speak loudly, but with her face still being held against the warm vehicle it was difficult.
"I don't care. That was in another life. We need supplies and you're going to give them to us." Mr. Johnson's voice was rough and uncaring. "Matt make sure she doesn't move."
Roxy could feel the difference as Tony let go of her and Matt took his place, because the pressure was multiplied by a thousand times. She had lost circulation in her fingers by the time they had unloaded her vehicle.
"That's it?" Tony's father's voice was full of disbelief. "There isn't hardly anything here!" Roxy couldn't see him walking up behind her so she couldn't prepare herself for the slap across her cheek. "Where is the rest?" He screamed at her.
"There isn't anymore." The taste of blood was filling her mouth. "This is all we have." She looked up at the tall man that stood in front of her and realized that it really was not the same man which whom she had seen at the funeral. His dress shirt and tie were replaced with a ripped shirt stained by dirt and sweat, and his previously shaven face was replaced with a thick layer of grey ringlets.
"That is bull!" Roxy had time to prepare herself for the next hit. When he swung his hand at her she quickly ducked and stepped backward. His missed her cheek by a few inches, but was determined to get her on the next one. This time Roxy had no where to go. Her back was against the truck and her head slammed against the window after his fist made connection with her nose.
"Stop it!" She heard Sage yell at the same instant as Tony. Black shapes were clouding her vision but she knew that she had fallen. The taste of blood was overwhelming and she could feel the liquid as it dripped down from her throbbing nose.
Stand up. You have to stand up. Her head was spinning, but with the truck behind her she was able to find her footing. "You're not," She spit the blood out and wiped her face gently with the back of her hand. "supposed to hit a girl."
She heard Sage let out a slight sigh that sounded almost like a laugh. She saw Mr. Johnson's hand clench again and braced herself for another hit. Her eyes were closed when she heard the sound of bone crunching. Her eyes snapped open and was in awe as she saw Mr. Johnson laying on the ground motionless.
"Let them go!" Tony called out to the men who had a hold of Sage. To Roxy's surprise the men listened and Sage within seconds Sage was at her side.
"Are you alright?" He placed his left hand around her waist to stabilize her and his right was turning her face so he could get a good look at her nose.
"It's broken." She clarified when she noticed how he scrunched his face. The blood was still dripping and every few seconds she had to gently wipe it with her sleeve.
"I know, but we need to go before everyone changes their minds." He glanced at Tony. "Thank you. You've saved us. Keep her truck, maybe it will keep you're dad from coming after us."
"Thanks." Tony was staring at his unconscious father on the ground, but he looked at Roxy sincerely before apologizing about her nose.
"A bent nose isn't anything to worry about anymore." She was being led to Sage's truck as she spoke, but she was still close enough to see Tony's smirk before he looked back at his father.
By the time Sage had helped Roxy into the truck Mr. Johnson was starting to stir. The entire group was around him and none of them looked please with the way he had reacted. Roxy watched the clump of people in her mirror as they drove away and was surprised to see that no one had offered to help Tony's father.
"Why did he have to punch me?" Roxy mumbled through her sleeve as she tried to stop the blood from flowing.
"Because he is an incompetent ass." She knew that Sage was angry and would have loved to be the one to take the swing at her attacker. "By the way, you need to put that nose back into place or it'll be stuck like that."
"I know." Roxy had thought of avoiding that issue but she knew that the longer the nose set the worse the pain would be.
"Can you do it yourself or would you rather me pull over?"
"There is not way I can do it." Sage seemed to have expected that answer and had already slowed down. He turned towards her after putting the car in park.
"It's going to hurt. Just don't take the pain out on me." When he touched her nose Roxy almost cried out.
"Please do it qui- AH!" Sage hadn't even let her finish before he snapped the cartilage back into position.
"You asshole!" Her screaming started as soon as Sage tried to apologize.
"You would've flinched if I waited." Roxy couldn't argue with him because she knew he was right. She was no stranger to pain, but this was one of the most excruciating pains she had felt. Another steady stream of blood was gushing out of her nostrils so she tilted her head back and asked Sage to find her something other than her own shirt sleeve. He took off his own shirt and handed it to her. She took it gratefully and held the fabric up against her nose. The taste of her own blood was quickly making her sick and Sage had to pull over twice for her to puke before they reached their house.
Roxy had absolutely no energy when Sage parked the car in the garage. Sensing her exhaustion Sage carried her to the house and only set her down because he had to open the door. Roxy barely made it to the couch before she felt like she was going to faint.
"I think I have a concussion." She told Sage after he handed her a clean shirt.
"Wouldn't surprise me. He didn't hold back on that hit at all."
"No one can say that I can't take a hit." Roxy tried to laugh, but the motion just brought her more pain.
"That's true. I don't understand how you're the one who always get hurt."
"I guess I'm just the Damsel in distress."
"More like Quasimodo with that nose."
"When I stop being so dizzy I'll give you one to match." The exhaustion was seeping through Roxy's voice and Sage couldn't take her seriously.
"Get a clean shirt on then go to sleep. I'll make you some soup and wake you up when it's done."
It took her a few minutes to get the drenched shirt off and that was after she had to ask Sage for help. When the shirt was off she realized that she would have to go wash off. The cold water didn't bother her because she was too exhausted to care. After getting cleaned and dressed she returned to the living room to find Sage half awake on the couch.
"So much for soup." Roxy joked but only got a slight groan out of him. She slid onto the couch beside him and was asleep before the first howl of the demons outside.
March 5, 2016
The sound of glass breaking was what woke her up.
"Damn it." Josh's voice was unfamiliar to her and it wasn't until she opened her eyes that she realized where she was. "Sorry." His apology was almost a whisper, but it didn't matter how loud he was now that Roxy was awake.
"It's fine." She said groggily. "I'd help pick up the glass, but I feel like a horse stepped on my chest." The pain was subsided slightly, probably because of all the medication they had her on, but it was still painful to sit up.
"Really? I was just going to ask if you could sweep this up."
"You're hilarious." Roxy's voice was thick with sarcasm.
"I try, but honestly how are you feeling today?" He sat down on the foot of her bed and rested his hand on the white blanket that covered her calf.
"I'm okay, but I probably shouldn't try to tackle the stairs today."
"I was trying to be careful" Josh apologized. "It's not like we can use the elevator. Even with electricity they're dangerous, because the electric goes out every once in a while. No one wants to be stuck in an elevator."
"Not with you anyways."
"You're hilarious." Josh mocked.
"I know." Roxy was smile reached from ear to ear. Even with the pain she was glad to be around other humans for a while.
"So, you had company last night."
"No, I didn't. There wasn't anyone in here all night."
"Maybe that's true but it was only because Ben wouldn't let anyone in. He is who I was referring to."
"Oh. Can I see him today?" Roxy had missed the dog over the past few days. Even with the human companionship she felt somewhat lonely.
"If we don't let him see you today he will probably start to bite us all. I had to give him food this morning just to get into the door."
"Then let him in." Roxy pleaded. "He won't jump on me if I tell him not to." Roxy wasn't sure exactly how true that was but she wanted desperately to see the dog.
"Are you sure?"
"Positive." She lied.
To Roxy it seemed like Josh took forever to open the door, but as soon as he did a streak of brown bounded into the room and jumped on Roxy's bed. Luckily, he landed at her feet and moved closer to her to lick her face.
"I missed you too, buddy." She said after the dog had coated her face in a layer of slobber. "Now, lay down." The dog awkwardly walked around in a circle and pushed Roxy's legs to the opposite side of the bed before finding a comfortable spot. The jolting of the bed made Roxy's ribs ache, but she tried to hide the pain from Josh.
"He's happy." Josh said as he damped a white wash cloth and handed it to her.
"He loves me." She wiped the slobber from her face and handed the cloth back to Josh. "Thank you."
"You really shouldn't apologize so much." He said as he rinsed the cloth off and threw it in a bin that Roxy couldn't see from her position on the bed. "You make it seem like taking care of you is a chore, but it's really a lot better then working on the farm with Tim."
"I'd like to see the farm after I recover. I'm sure Ben would love it too." When she said the dog's name his head perked up and Roxy had to tell him to stay.
"We can go. There's a lot of things that you'll want to see after you are able to walk by yourself. We have so much here that you would never even dream of. Wait until you see the way our electricity works, and if you want we can go see the children while they do their school work with Jillian. The best is the view from the rooftop. The lack of pollution has made the sky look so much cleaner, but you don't really notice it if you're on the ground level. The color is perfect, especially at sunrise or sunset. Even with all the ruined building it is a gorgeous sight. I can't wait to show you."
"It sounds beautiful."
"We will go look at it when you're ready, but right now we have to go for a little walk. Linda wants to see you but we figured that you'd want to shower first."
"I'd love a shower."
"I thought so. Kate is just finishing up her breakfast and she offered to come help you if you needed. It's going to hurt to bring your arms up over your head and she thought you'd want your hair washed."
"I think I can do it myself." Roxy was confident that she would be able to maneuver a little bit more today, but when she had to have Josh help her up she realized that it wouldn't be so simple.
"It'll get better." Josh reassured her as they slowly crept along the hallway. Kate was already there when they reached the wash room. Roxy's breathing was heavy even though they walked at a slow pace, and her chest was aching.
"I know it might be a little strange, but you'll feel so much better after you wash your hair." Kate said after hearing how Roxy would have rather showered alone.
"Just let me try it by myself." Roxy's confidence remained high until she tried to get herself undressed. The shirt she was wearing was large on her, but when she tried to pull the shirt over her head she realized it was impossible.
"Kate!" She called and in a few seconds Kate entered the room.
"A little harder than it looks?" Kate jokingly asked. "I told you it wouldn't be easy. I'm surprised you lasted that long before calling me." The look on Roxy's face when Kate began to pull the shirt off of her made Kate stop. "Don't worry, I'm happily married."
That made Roxy laugh and become a little bit more comfortable. "I haven't had someone help me shower since I was a child."
"You'd be surprised how often it happens around here. People get hurt and we can only stand so much stink." She handed Roxy a wash rag and a bar of soap. "Go wash off, and when you're done I'll come in and wash your hair."
Even washing her body proved to be a problem. She couldn't bend down to wash her legs off and every movement sent knives into her rib cage. It took her ten minutes to completely wash herself off and by then the taste of blood was filling her mouth from the cut her teeth had left in her lower lip. She called to Kate and was relieved when the women began to massage shampoo into her long hair.
"Thank you for this." Roxy said as she stood under the fountain of water and rinsed the soap from her hair.
"Like I said before, you'd be surprised how often this happens." She massaged some conditioner into Roxy's long hair and told Roxy there was a towel outside the shower for when she had finished washing before leaving the room.
Roxy stood under the cascade of water for a few more minutes enjoying the warm water. It was the first time she had had a warm shower in months and she made a mental note to ask Josh how they did it. When she stepped out of the shower she was relieved to see that Kate had left the towel on the edge of sink so she wouldn't have to bend over to grab it. She dried herself off to the best of her ability and called for Kate again.
"I need clothes to get dressed." Roxy pointed out.
"Oops! I'm so sorry. We brought all of your clothes that you had from the truck in. I'll send Josh to your room and get them." She walked briskly from the room and a few minutes later returned with a pair of sweatpants, a long sleeve sweater, and under garments.
"I didn't see any bags in my room. Were they in the closet?" Roxy grimaced as she tried to slowly get dressed.
Kate let her do the best she could but she had to help hook her bra and pull the sweater over her head.
"No, there wasn't any bags in the rooms you were in. They weren't actual bedrooms; we just use them for people who need our help. We weren't even sure if you wanted to stay with us, but Josh insisted that we get you a room.
We will show you it when you want to tackle the steps again, but for now it's just easier to stay on this level."
"I see." Roxy felt so much better now that she had taken a shower, but she realized that her stomach was aching for some more food.
"There's still food left for breakfast down in the cafeteria if you're hungry." Kate said as if she had read her mind.
"I'm famished."
"I figured. I have some jobs I have to do but somehow Josh has gotten out of all of his again." She held the bathroom door open for Roxy as she spoke. "I'm quite sure he would love to introduce you to some people."
"That sounds great." They traveled through a maze of hallways to get to the cafeteria and Roxy thought she would never figure out how to maneuver through it by herself.
"Why isn't anyone walking through the halls?" Roxy asked when she heard the voices coming through the door to the cafeteria.
"Everyone has someplace to be around here and we usually run a tight schedule. Don't be doubting our numbers, because there are plenty of us here. There is probably about thirty people eating right now and the rest are at their jobs." She checked the watch on her wrist. "Speaking of jobs; I have to go to work. Josh is in here along with Ben, it shouldn't be hard to spot them."
Before Roxy even had time to reply Kate was gone. She stood in front of the door frame and listened to the murmuring of voices emitting from the other side. Her hands began to sweat. It had been so long since she had been with a group of people who weren't trying to kill her and part of her feared that they would try to do just that. Then she remembered how nicely she had been treated, and that Josh wouldn't let anything happen to here. She placed her hand on the door handle and slowly pulled.
The room went silent when she entered. At first it was just the people closest to her, but as the noise level decreased the attention being paid to her increased. For a moment her heart dropped to her toes. Her eyes frantically searched for Josh amongst the small crowd, but she heard his voice before she saw him.
"Roxy, it's nice to see you actually clean." He had walked up from behind her and was carrying a plastic plate and a bowl in his hands. Ben was following at his heels with his nose outstretched towards the bowl. "Why's everyone so quiet? It's not like she's going to hurt us."
"What hasn't anyone seen a pregnant lady before?" Roxy was relieved to see that it was Keith who had spoken.
"She is so young." Roxy couldn't tell who had spoken this time, but she didn't think it was anyone she had met.
"Which is all the more reason she needs our help." Josh handed Roxy the plate full of food and place his hand at the small of her back. While he guided her towards the table that Keith was seated the crowd started to talk again. Roxy set her plate down on the table and slid into her seat while Josh set the dog's food on the floor behind her.
"I'll be right back." He walked back towards the long table where the food was placed.
"Roxy, this is Sara and her daughter Caroline." Keith gestured to the young women across the table and the small child who was peeking around her. Roxy assumed Sara was in her late twenties. She had a heart shaped face with blonde hair that was tied up into a large bun on the top of her head. Her eyes were brown, but they had small yellow flakes that looked as if gold was sprinkled onto them. Caroline was a spitting image of her mother, but instead of brown eyes her eyes were ocean blue. Roxy thought that she looked to be about five.
"Hello," Roxy said shyly. "it's a pleasure to meet you both." She reached her right hand across the table and shook Sara's hand.
"It's nice to meet you too, Roxy. You are all that Josh talks about." The women's voice was deeper than Roxy had expected, but it was soothing. "I can see why now. You are a beautiful young women."
"Well thank you." She could feel the blood rushing to her cheeks.
"You're welcome." As she spoke Josh slid into the seat beside Roxy.
"I see Keith has introduced you to my cousin and her lovely daughter." He directed himself to the child who was hiding behind Sara.
"I'm Tim's daughter." Sara clarified. "Josh and Tim found us after this all started. My husband was in the National Guard so he wasn't home when everything started, but he kept us prepared."
"When we found them Sara had Caroline locked in the basement and she almost shot me when I knocked down the door." Josh's voice was accusing, but thick with humor.
"I wasn't going to shoot." His sister argued. "I was just taking precautions."
"I told you it was me five times before I knocked the door in."
"And I have told you a thousand times that I couldn't hear you."
"Okay you two." Keith interrupted. "You're cousins, not siblings."
During the whole argument Roxy was focused on Carline hiding behind her mother. At one point the little girl peeked through the space between her mother's arm and hip and Roxy waved. The girl smiled back but still didn't dare to emerge from her place of protection.
"She won't hurt you." Josh said to girl.
Sara turned her body so that she could whisper into her daughter's ear. Caroline nodded and her mother kissed her forehead. When Sara turned back around the girl cautiously climbed into the seat beside her. She had to sit on her knees to be able to see of the edge of the table.
"Hi Caroline. My name is Roxy." Roxy tried to make her voice sound as sweet and innocent as she could.
"Hi. I'm this many." The young girl held up six fingers to correspond with her age and everyone at the table couldn't help but to smile. "How old are you?"
"I'm seventeen, but I don't have enough fingers to show you."
"You could use your toes." The little girl slipped off her sneaker and sock on one foot and awkwardly picked it up in the air. She wiggled her five toes and ten fingers and said "Like this!".
That brought a round of laughter from the entire table. "Why is everyone laughing?" The girl seemed hurt.
"It's because you're so cute." Josh explained and the smile returned to the child's face.
Roxy looked down at her food for the first time and was relieved to see that there was an actual variety. A small bowl of soup wouldn't be her only meal anymore. Along with the soup there was a scoop of mashed potatoes and even some mixed vegetables. Roxy mouth was watering before she took the first bite of the potatoes. When she half way through the meal the little girl said her name.
"Yes, Caroline?"
"Why is your belly so big?" She was moving her mashed potatoes around with her spoon when she asked.
Roxy look at Sara, who gave her a welcoming nod, before answering the question. "My belly is so big because there's a baby inside."
"A baby?" The child's eyes grew wide and she looked up at her mom. "Why's there a baby in her belly? Did she eat it?"
The whole table erupted into laughter again. "No sweetheart," Her mother brushed a piece of hair back from the child's face. "You were in my belly once too."
"I was?" Caroline's face was filled with wonder. Her expression made Roxy long for the face of the child that was growing in her stomach. She protectively rested one hand on top of the bulge and continued to eat her soup with the other while Sara explained how the child in Roxy's belly was going to be a girl.
"Like a little sister?" Caroline's sweet voice and even sweeter voice had the whole table focusing on her.
Roxy swallowed and casually stirred her soup with her spoon as she spoke. "Well to be your sister it'd have to be your mommy's baby, but you can act like she is your little sister if you want." Roxy glanced around and noticed that many people from the surrounded tables were also engrossed with the conversation. Many were smiling, but she could also see that some of them looked disgusted. She made a mental note to ask Josh why some of them were so upset.
"Do you mean to pretend?" Caroline asked and Roxy replied with a nod. "Mommy!" The child exclaimed. "I'm going to be a big sister!"
The rest of the meal went by without much excitement. Roxy tried to pace herself but she finished before everyone else regardless. When Josh noticed that she was done he slipped his vegetables onto her plate and explained that she needed them because of the baby. Roxy reluctantly enjoyed her extra portion.
After Josh had finished his meal he offered to show Roxy around, but he promised her that he wouldn't make her tackle another set of stairs. Roxy agreed and said her goodbyes to Caroline, Sara, and Keith before carefully standing up. Josh had just reached her side when she felt the baby kick.
Roxy had thought that she had felt her child move before, but she had never been sure. This time the motion took her breath away and sent a searing pain through her rib cage. Black tunnels began to form in her eyes, but with the help of Josh she was able to steady herself.
"Linda told you that she was very strong." Josh said as he lowered her back into her seat. "She kicked a lot at first. That's why we've had you on so much pain medicine. On the way back here you were practically screaming in the truck every time she moved. I'm not surprised you don't remember it."
Tears were forming in Roxy's eyes and she had to take deep breaths to calm herself down. She wouldn't let herself seem weak in front of all these new people.
"What's the matter with her, Mommy?" She heard Caroline ask from the opposite side of the table.
"The baby is moving and it's hurting her." Sara whispered.
"Can I feel it?"
"Honey, I don't think that it's a good idea right now."
"That's alright, Sara." Roxy took another deep breath and tried to indiscreetly wipe the tears from her eyes. "Caroline can feel her. She isn't kicking so hard now."
"Yay!" The child proclaimed and climbed off of her seat and ran to Roxy's side.
"You have to be gentle though. Okay?" Sara's voice was stern and Caroline answered with her a sweet nod.
"Let me see your hand." Roxy reached out and gently took Caroline's hand and placed it on her stomach.
"I don't feel anything." The girl complained.
"Just wait a minute." Roxy could feel everyone in the room watching her, but she did her best to ignore them. When Caroline felt the movement in Roxy's stomach her smile stretched from ear to ear.
"Hi, baby sister" Caroline whispered to Roxy's stomach. "Thank you!" She exclaimed and ran around the table and back to her mother.
"Are you ready to go now?" Josh helped Roxy stand after she nodded and kept a hand protectively around her waist as she walked out of the room.
"I need something for this pain." She let her guard down now that she was alone with Josh.
"There's some in the room." He said as he helped ease her along the hallway.
The trip back seemed to take twice as long as the trip there and by then her chest was pounded. The baby had continued to kick, but there were two large kicks that almost brought Roxy to her knees. When they reached the door to the room Roxy was sobbing and Josh was doing his best to calm her down. After he got her safely to her bed he rushed to the cabinet and was back within seconds to hand Roxy two pills. When the painkillers were swallowed she melted against the soft cushion of the bed and braced herself for another kick. Josh pulled a chair to the side of the bed and made himself comfortable.
"That was terrible." She was trying to keep the child calm by running her palms against the skin on her stomach.
"The medication should keep her calm without hurting her, but it will probably make you pass out soon. " He brushed his blonde hair back with one swift motion and rested his hand on the edge of her bed.
"That's fine. I'm exhausted anyways." Roxy mimicked him by running her fingers through her long thick hair. It was still damp from the shower and so it felt heaves against her shoulders. Thankfully she had a hair tie on her wrist, but she was unable to get her arms up over her head to pile her hair into a bun.
"Do you want help?" Josh was already standing and reaching for the black hair-band before she could answer.
His touch was soft as he ran his fingers through her damp and knotted hair. She was surprised that he was able to use his fingers as a comb without pulling out half of her scalp.
"Have you done this before?" Roxy asked as he began to pull her hair back.
"On a girl? No, but I used to have really long hair."
"Really?" She couldn't seem to get a mental picture of him with long hair into her mind.
"Yea, I grew it out for my sister." His voice dropped off and Roxy could immediately tell that they were heading for a touchy subject. She gave him a silent invitation to continue but when he didn't she decided it would be best to say something.
"You don't have to explain anything if you don't want to." She could see the desperation and sorrow in his expression and so she moved her hand towards the place his were resting on her bed. Right before she reached them the baby kicked again.
"Damn it!" Roxy cried as she reached for her stomach and hunched over. Her vision was darkening again and her head was spinning.
"I'm going to go get Linda. Maybe she can do something more. Are you okay here by yourself for a few minutes?" Josh had stood up and was leaning over her. She couldn't form words so she just did her best to nod.
By the time Josh returned with a flush-faced Linda the baby had kicked twice more. Roxy was sure that her ribs were shattered by now because it hurt so much to breathe, but she was assured by Linda that they were not. Josh kept asking Linda if there was anything he could do and after the third time Linda sent him outside. Roxy could picture him pacing back and fourth outside the doorway. She could barely understand anything that Linda was saying. The only words that she could pick up were "ultrasound", "upstairs" and "medication". There were more pills being handed to her and she took them willingly. She was being carried by Josh up another flight of stairs when the darkness of sleep overtook her.
Before.
When Roxy woke up the next morning she knew that she had a concussion. The whole room was spinning around her and the thin beams of morning light shining onto her face from one of the loose boards on the window gave her an instant headache. She shielded her eyes with her hand as she tried her best to stand. When Sage woke a few minutes later Roxy was slouched over on the edge of the couch with her head resting against her knees.
"Are you okay?" He asked her groggily.
"No, but try to talk quietly." Even the soothing sound of Sage's voice sent a ringing through her head.
"Concussion?" Sage didn't lower his voice at all and she winced from the pain.
"Yes, some Tylenol would be appreciated."
"Let me wake up first." He replied as he rubbed his eyes with the back of his hands.
After what seemed like hours he finally had gotten up and walked into the kitchen to the cupboard where they kept the medications. By the time he returned with two small pills and a glass of water, Roxy had covered her head with a blanket and laid down.
"Doctor Sage to the rescue." He seemed to yell as she slowly peeled the covers back. She quickly swallowed the pills with a bit of water and was soon back under the blanket.
"Is the light bothering you?" Sage's voice seemed a bit quieter from her place under the blanket and Roxy was glad she had grabbed the thickest one they had.
"Yea. It's giving me a killer headache." Normally the lightening in the house was terribly dark. With no electricity they had no other option for lighting than using the sun, which was difficult when you were trying to keep things out. The lighting upstairs was much better, but they had blocked that entrance off months ago just in case one of them decided to learn how to climb.
"Well I can already tell they they knocked a bunch of boards loose last night. I am going to go out and fix them."
"I think if I have to hear you hammering my head will probably explode."
"I know. It will be muffled more if you go to one of the other rooms. You could even try to cram yourself into a closet and it would be dark."
That's what Roxy had to do for the next three days. She would sleep on the couch beside Sage and spend the rest of her time uncomfortably positioned in a closet or even on one of the stiff beds they had in the bedroom when Sage wasn't making too much noise outside. When the sun would set Roxy would wander her way back out into the living room and listen from under a blanket as the demons outside screamed and searched for something to fill their constantly empty stomachs.
"What do you think happened to them?" She asked Sage after spending most of the day trying to think of something else to call them.
"Happened to who?" Sage was covered completely by a blanket just like Roxy was, but only because she had made him. The flashlight he was using to read was too bright for Roxy's eyes and she didn't feel like sitting alone in another room for any longer.
"Everyone. How do you think this happened?"
"Oh." Roxy heard him switch off the light and uncover himself. "I don't know. It could be part of the IGD's, or it could've been the virus, but now I'm guessing it's mostly viral. Who really knows? It's not like we can test it."
"Yea, I guess." There was a long pause. "I wonder if anyone has tested it though. There has to be some actual civilization left somewhere. There is no way that nobody knew that this was happening."
"Don't you remember all of the interviews we heard on the radio on the way here. Everyone swore that they didn't know why this was happening." Sage argued.
"True, but the outbreak started in the US. Don't you think our government would take it upon themselves to notify someone? The UN?"
"Our government was full of corrupts. We owed half of the UN money and the other half wouldn't have had the military capabilities to hold of a zombie attack like this."
"We can't call them zombies. There is no way of knowing if they're the walking dead. Yea they obviously have little to no brain control, but that doesn't mean they're dead." Roxy had uncovered her head with the blanket and was thankful most of the noise from the screaming creatures outside was muffled.
"We can't call them anything else either. Vampire's might fit, because of their strength, but they're not just drinking blood."
"We can't name them because of how literature has portrayed them either. The stories have too many variations."
"Then let's just call them them or let's stick with zombies." Roxy could see only the outline of his body in the darkness, but she could tell he was going to the kitchen. "There's no use arguing about it." He stopped by the door way. "Do you want anything?"
"A water would be nice." She rolled onto her side and tried to get comfortable as she waited for him to return, but the thought of what exactly the monsters outside were was all she could think of.
The mutation couldn't be some kind of virus. Or could it? Was there some kind of virus that had been forming for years but the human race was too strong for it to infect? There easily could have been cases of it in some third world countries, but they would be easy to keep hidden. She wondered if they had to be dead and reanimated or if they would slowly just get sick until the virus took complete control over them.
When Sage returned he brought Roxy a water and a pop-tart. He had grabbed the same thing for himself. "These are the last two of them." He took a bite off the corner and quickly chewed it before continuing. "I just couldn't help myself when I saw them in the cupboard."
They ate their small meal slowly to try to enjoy the flavor of the treat more, but within five minutes they were both gone. Roxy didn't bring up the topic of them again, but she couldn't get the image of their piercing black eyes out of her mind. They haunted her dreams as she slept and her tossing and turning made Sage retire to one of the uncomfortable beds.
In the morning Roxy had to listen to Sage complain about how uncomfortable the beds were. After the third time he said something Roxy finally responded. "You should've kicked me out. It's not like I slept well anyways."
"I would rather you sleep better than me. You're the one that's hurt."
"Then stop complaining." And he did.
She actually felt a lot better this morning than she had the day before. The sunlight no longer killed her eyes, but she didn't think she was ready to go outside yet. The headaches weren't so pounding and after a few Tylenols she felt like a new person.
Sage took care of the usual duties for the day. When he came back into the house his clothes were drenched in blood and dirt, but that didn't surprise her as much as the grim look on his face.
"What's the matter?" Roxy asked him.
"There's still one alive out there." His voice dropped off.
"So? Kill it. It's not the first one we've found still crawling around." Roxy had killed quite a few crawlers herself, but most of the time she let Sage do it.
"It's a child."
"How old?" Roxy's heart had dropped to her toes. Sometimes they have dealt with children but it's never been easy for either of them. The last child they had was probably about seven, and Sage had decided it would be easier to just burn it where it was laying.
"Maybe three." Sage couldn't look Roxy in the eye as he spoke, but she knew that he couldn't take care of it.
"Do we let it die on it's own?"
"We can't let her suffer." Sage looked like he was about to pass out. All of the color had drained from he usually bright face and his eyes were beginning to water. "I can do it." He blurted out suddenly. "With your concussion I understand you don't want to be outside."
"Just go get cleaned up."
"But Roxy." He tried to argue, but Roxy had already grabbed her pistol and was making her way to the door.
As soon as the sunlight beamed in from the open door Roxy's head began to ache. She closed her eyes and took a deep breathe before taking her first step out into the sunlight. The yard looked no different than usual. The bodies were burning in the corner of the yard, and the familiar, but disgusting, smell made her feel like she could puke.
When she heard the gurgling moan from the small child she almost didn't look. She was stuck underneath one of the fallen two by fours, but the weight didn't seem to bother her. Her black eyes were focused on Roxy and she was snapping her small teeth in her direction. Roxy could barely see the whites of her teeth through the mess of blood and grim that coated her unnatural face, but she could easily see that the child was only a few years old.
Her left arm was pinned under the board, and the other reached towards her. She only had three fingers on her right hand, and all three of them were coated with the same black goo that drenched her clothes. Roxy was surprised to see that the child had just recently changed. Her dark hair was just beginning to fall out in thick clumps that covered the ground around her body. For a moment Roxy tried to think about what the child looked like before the change, but the thought made her heart ache. Then the thought that the child's parents were probably burning in the pile made Roxy completely sick. She leaned against the house and puked out what she ate for breakfast that morning.
When she was done she moved back to the child. The young girl was still desperately trying to grab at Roxy, but Roxy made sure to keep her distance. As she looked at the child withering on her ground before her she couldn't help but to think of her younger sister. Was she walking around trying to eat whoever was left of the human race? Or was she dead? Tears were forming in Roxy's eyes as she quickly aimed her pistol at the child's head and pulled the trigger.